country, to keep the country impact, and that is what occurred. but when i think about how disconnected we are from our history, speaking to your point, you know, it's hard to get past the idea of slavery and the fact that slavery was a central part of the southern economy and the southern way of life, and it was that way of life that was one of the central aspects of what the war was about. and i want to say a little bit about what slavery really means, how it's connected to how we are, where we are now. first of all, slavery lasted for 246 years. that's 12 generations. how many grades of the word grandparent do we have to add to comprehend how long slavery lasted? this is an important thing to know. it will not be until next year, 2022, that the united states will have been a free and