A reminder of what we’ve gained, and could yet lose

By John L. Micek

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — An appropriately picturesque walking bridge connects the Visitors’ Center at Colonial Williamsburg to the meticulously recreated historic site about a mile away. And every step along it is a step backward into our tangled, jumbled, and often painful history as a nation. 

At regularly spaced intervals, plaques set into the concrete remind you that in the not-too-distant past, there was no television and long-distance travel was onerous and difficult. That until 1920, women were denied the right to vote, and until 1865, you knew someone who owned another human being. In 1776, you were still subject to the whims of a king an ocean away.