Our History Is Part of Our Environment

I heard on the news last night, and against this morning in the Austin American Statesman, that Preservation Texas has issued a list of 2009's Most Endangered Historic Places.

We don't often think of the impact that history has on who and what and where we are today, but its impact is enormous. We can't figure out where we're going if we don't know where we are and how we got there. Trashing the old in service to the new is an attitude that leads to such things as giant mountains of trash in our waste disposals, a landscape buried in houses (we just HAVE to have a brand! new! house! with all the latest bells and whistles, or if the refrigerator isn't the latest color, out it goes!).

To counteract this trend, we should be treasuring our history and the places that serve as reminders of it. Whether it be Hamilton Pool, once crystal clear 20 feet to the bottom, now all but destroyed by silt from a nearby development, or a bank building in a mid-century architecture that's all but lost, or a bridge, or a church, or a Governor's Mansion, these are the things that remind us of our roots, that ARE our roots, and they are precious.