Actor calls for honest debate, education on history, politics

A historic designation for a 180-mile stretch of road from Monticello to Gettysburg and efforts to bring the history into schools may help preserve political and social freedoms for the future, actor and activist Richard Dreyfuss said Tuesday.

Dreyfuss was the guest speaker for the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership’s fifth annual conference, held at the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business Administration.

The conference featured historically themed films made by students at Albemarle County’s Sutherland Middle School in cooperation with the partnership and historians at Monticello.

“Unless we know where we came from and who we are and why we are who we are, we are never going to know where we are going,” Dreyfuss told the audience of schoolchildren, educators and members of the partnership. “We are failing our kids if we don’t provide that education and, sadly, we are not doing it. We are the first generation to get an ‘F’ in transmitting the foundation of the real American dream.”

Dreyfuss said technology and entertainment have diluted the way Americans debate public policy and changed perceptions of the concept of free speech.

“Where in America can you talk about serious issues seriously, to have a real, honest exchange of ideas, without the melodrama of talk radio and television? Nowhere. The idea of freedom of speech is not that your neighbor has the freedom to hold your political opinions, but that your neighbor has the freedom to hold any political opinion they damn well please,” Dreyfuss said.

It’s through organizations such as the Journey Through Hallowed Ground and their efforts at educating the public and especially schoolchildren that some of the wisdom of the Founding Fathers can be communicated to the next generation, Dreyfuss said.

“You can’t scream reason. You can’t scream logic. Unfortunately, the louder you scream, the more people listen, and the more people listen, the more advertising you sell,” he said. “We need to have serious conversations on serious issues in a calm, intelligent atmosphere. It’s these kind of efforts that will help transmit the true legacy of the United States to the next generation.”

The Journey Through Hallowed Ground is a partnership of hundreds of communities in four states that have banded together to conserve and preserve historic sites from the pre-Colonial period, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and other historical periods.

The national heritage area includes the homes of nine presidents, 16 national historic sites and 47 national historic districts.

The national scenic byway along which the Journey Through Hallow-ed Ground is centered is U.S. 15 from Gettysburg, Pa., to Orange. It includes Route 20, Route 22 and Route 231 from Char-lottesville to Orange and Gordonsville.

“Five years ago there was no ‘Journey,’ there was no scenic byway. We realized that there was all of this history that existed between Gettysburg and Monticello, more history than in any location in the country, and parts of it were in danger of being bulldozed under,” said Cate Magennis Wyatt, president of the partnership.

Wyatt said volunteers and visionaries made the historic byway and district possible. The history along the route makes it educational and that history coupled with its scenic beauty make it a natural for tourism, she noted.

Ann H. Mallek, chairwoman of the Albemarle County Board of Super-visors, and Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris agreed.

“This is a region that values its history,” Norris told the partnership. “We need to make sure that our history passes down to our children. We have some of the most obvious historical sites but some not-so obvious sites as well. Jefferson School is an example.”

Norris noted that historic conservation and preservation equate to economic development through tourism.

“It builds a better future for all of us,” he said.