Stone Mountain Park Stone Mountain, GA

“This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."
 
“But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!”
 
-       Martin Luther King Jr. “I have a dream”
 
 
   We will always be confronted with a painful history that today continues to shape American life; it’s not likely to be forgotten in my life time. I started this blog with the historic 1963 King speech that included Stone Mountain. Just five years earlier before that speech, the state of Georgia purchased the land and banned Klan rallies from being held at the summit.

 There is so much history of humanity fighting for what they believed with each belief meaning different things to different people. IMO, it is willfully ignorant to believe that the removal of any statue or monument will sever any connection to the past. Each monument can be removed and placed in a museum. America’s museums and historical societies have the funding and following to overcome any misguided view of history being erased. By placing the statues in a museum will be the appropriate setting to tell all sides of the events. Also the stories will be told for generations as an important historical lesson about the moral wrong of slavery, the irrationality of racism. 

  Here I sit at the face of Stone Mountain.
 
     Stone Mountain is a quartz monzonite dome monadnock and the site of Stone Mountain Park in Stone Mountain, Georgia. The elevation is 1,686 feet and 825 feet above the surrounding area. Stone Mountain is well-known not only for its geology, but also for the enormous rock relief on its north face, the largest bas-relief in the world. There is a carving on its face that depicts three Confederate figures during the Civil War: Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.  Stone Mountain was once owned by the Venable Brothers and was the site of the founding of the second Ku Klux Klan in 1915. It was purchased by the State of Georgia in 1958. There is so much more history here and I challenge you to do some research.
 
  I can’t even express in words the beauty of this Park.  I’m nested in the woods with a view of the lake.  I love the peace and quiet which allows me time to practice meditating and writing. There are several activities available including a laser show, which seems to be the thing for most of these national parks. I’m so glad that I decided to visit this park.