The issue of what to do with Davids Island raises questions about the place of history at the local, county and state level. Part of the answer to the questions appeared in The Journal News on the same day as the Davids Island article that raised them. One article, “Some never get too old for birthday cake,” was about the celebration of George Washington’s birthday at the Jacob Purdy House in White Plains; the other article, “Lesser-known soldiers of the Revolutionary War profiled,” reported on an event in Tappan. The Institute of History, Archaeology, and Education co-sponsored an event at Washington’s Headquarters in Newburgh. These articles, which appeared Monday, and events highlight several important considerations about the future of Davids Island.

Davids Island is part of the legacy of the Civil War. When Americans think of the Civil War, they think of events in Gettysburg or further south and forget about the north. This myopic vision is deficient for three reasons:

• Slavery was not confined to south of the Mason-Dixon, and many historic sites in Westchester, such as Philipse Manor Hall, Philipsburg Manor and the Rye Historical Society, have revised their programs accordingly

• The war did not only involve people from the South. Many of the Union soldiers were from Westchester County and New York. At that time, many of the soldiers served in local militias with people from their community much like the National Guard units now in Iraq. These soldiers weren’t simply isolated men thrust together but, oftentimes, a band of brothers even before going off to war. The names that we ignore on the memorials are those of people who lived exactly where we do today

• Even the people who did not fight often made their voices heard about the war just as people do today. Lincoln was not the revered person then that he has become today as these comments by one Northern politician in 1864 clearly reveal that issues then still resonate now: “For over three years Lincoln has been calling for men, and they have been given. But with all the vast armies placed at his command he has failed. Such a failure had never been known before. Such devastation of human life had never been seen since the destruction of Sennacherib by the breath of the Almighty. And still the monster usurper wants more men for his slaughter pens. Ever since the usurper, traitor and tyrant has occupied the presidential chair, the Republican party has shouted, ‘War to the knife, and the knife to the hilt.’ Blood has flowed in torrents; and yet the thirst of the old monster is not quenched. His cry is more blood.”

The past is part of who we are today and what we will create tomorrow.

The New York state education standards require teachers to teach and students to learn about our shared past by visiting the historic sites and museums in the community, otherwise Lincoln’s “mystic chord of memories” that unite us as a people will be torn asunder and the fabric of our society will be no more.

Davids Island provides an opportunity to help build a better tomorrow by doing a better job of remembering how we arrived at this our present. The following actions are recommended:

• That Davids Islands be the site of an historical and ecological center for the study of the history of Westchester County and the Long Island Sound.

• That the colleges of the county be contacted to create a consortium or to take the lead in the creation of such a center.

• That a determination be made about which of the remaining buildings can be renovated to serve as examples of living history and which need to be demolished.

We have the opportunity to create a center of remembering worthy of a county on which Lady Liberty’s light shines. My prayer at this time of celebrating presidential greatness is that we continue their vision by making it our own.

The writer is a member of the Institute of History, Archaeology, and Education, based in Purchase.