Marcia Morrissey (wife of Hot Air’s Ed) strikes a patriotic theme with a nice column about her recent visit to our nation’s capital. I have to agree with her sentiments – every time I’ve visited Washington, D.C. it never fails to impress. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why “All The President’s Men” is one of my favorite films – it recalls the feeling of grandeur, power and history that our nation’s capital shows off in spades.

Morrissey also writes of her impressions of seeing and walking the battlefield at Gettysburg for the first time:

We also visited Gettysburg. That was the first and only Civil War site I have ever had the privilege to visit. I have always enjoyed history, and not just for facts and dates. I especially want to learn as much as I can of what it might have been like to live through it for those who were there. What did they experience, feel, hear, and think? I had read the history books, and heard documentaries, but nothing can replace actually being there. Gettysburg covers an even more expansive area than I had realized. I tried to imagine the sights, sounds, and smells of that battle. I’m sure that even with the vivid, detailed descriptions given by our excellent tour guide, I could not get a full picture of what that would have been like.

She’s right there. There are few places with such a feeling or presence as Gettyburg has. I remember my brother Mark and I traveling to Gettyburg from Washington, D.C back in 1974 and driving into the town just after sunrise – a huge orange ball rising over the battlefields covered in mist – you could almost feel the ghosts of history retreating back into the woods to escape the light of day. It is a moving place, a historic place, a sacred place.

I look forward to another chance some day to do just what Marcia Morrissey has done and visit our nation’s capital once again.