Lee Sandlin:

I once saw a vintage newspaper from the Civil War announcing the result of the Battle of Gettysburg. "TREMENDOUS VICTORY IN PENNSYLVANIA" was the headline. In smaller type was this subhead: "Reverent Gratitude of the People." Reverent gratitude -- there's a sentiment we don't see much of these days.

From the archive:

The Civil War dead are still among us—long after their beautifully dressed widows have passed away—and the problem is how to get them buried. The acceptable thing to say now, as it was then, is that the soldiers, and their sacrifice, are what remain to inspire us. But it’s the corpses that haunt us, not the soldiers, as they haunted us then, and no amount of black crêpe can cover them over.

The Iraq War introduced entirely new kinds of cruelty to the world, so it’s strange how many of my memories are of kindness.

Somebody said to me the other day that the entitlement we need to get rid of is our sense of entitlement.