By David Hegg

As I am writing this, I am sitting in a very old and magnificent estate in England called Matfen Hall. So far, we’ve traveled to Boston, Norway, Switzerland, and are now in northern England just miles from the Scottish border. This month-long trip has been a combination of vacation and business, and our path has taken us to cities and fields that were, in a very real sense, magnificently ancient. Let’s say they are monuments to those who labored long and hard to build what would last for centuries.

First, we were able to celebrate Independence Day in Boston where the reality of early Colonial life still emanates from the streets and walls dating back to the 1600s. As we watched the fireworks over the St. Charles River from the rooftop garden of our friends’ brownstone apartment, I had a new and quite different July 4th experience. Being where the call to freedom began was a powerful reminder of the courage of our forefathers. They had a persevering passion that even the greatest opposition could not dampen. This began in me a deeper understanding that history matters, and it matters even more as society begins to forget it.

Then, we flew to Norway and once again I was smacked in the face with the reality that our America is an infant compared to the history of Europe. We walked streets a thousand years old, saw buildings and monuments dedicated to courageous men and women who had........

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