by Stewart Williams | Dec 15, 2011 | News Slider, Opinion
Students looking for something different to do can find tangible connections to history within a short drive of the Lipscomb campus. One such opportunity for hands-on learning is just 30 minutes away in Franklin, Tenn. Many of the historical sites in and around Franklin are related to the Battle of Franklin, which occurred within the present-day city limits on Nov. 30, 1864. This was one of the American Civil War’s most bloody conflicts, costing the lives of more than 9,500 men. The Carter House, where some of the most heated fighting took place, is a must for any history-seeker. Walking around the grounds of the brick house, you can touch Civil War cannons and see bullet holes from the battle in the sides of outbuildings. There also is a museum on site which brings the story of the battle home. Just outside the city is the Carnton Plantation. This family home served as a field hospital for Confederate wounded during and after the battle. The floors of the home are still heavily stained with blood from these soldiers. This is history on a very personal level. “What we specialize in here at the Franklin battlefield are tangible hands-on experiences,” said Rob Cross, associate historian for both the Carter House and the Carnton Plantation. These sites make history more than a list of facts to memorize. You can really get a sense of what the people involved in this story were going through. Not only are the sites themselves engaging, but the people involved in the preservation process are passionate about the project. Many of the people involved in the preservation effort, like Cross, have ancestors who fought...
by Stewart Williams | Dec 15, 2011 | News Slider, Opinion
O.K., so I’m sitting there and here comes Keith Urban. And Eric Church … and, well, it’d be easy to lose count after spending the evening of Nov. 9 as a seat-filler at the 45th annual CMA Awards here in Nashville. Freshman Megan Anderson and I were two lucky Lipscomb students, among students from other schools, chosen to be seat-fillers because of our involvement in CMA EDU, a country music program that meets monthly on campus. Several hundred seat-fillers met outside Bridgestone Arena where their IDs were checked, and they were given wristbands and directions for the night. Of course, the purpose of seat-fillers is simple: to fill the seats. Those seats are empty when the stars go onstage to perform or to present awards, so our job was to keep the arena looking filled up for network cameras. A group of aisle-fillers wore pink wristbands, and the seat-fillers wore blue wristbands. Each group was assigned a general area to sit or stand throughout the show unless they were separately asked to go somewhere else. Megan and I sat in the back-upper section of the arena with a clear view of the main stage. About eight rows in front of us was a small stage, where several artists such as Church, Urban, Chris Young and Scotty McCreery performed throughout the night. As seat-fillers, we weren’t allowed to bring phones or cameras to the show to be as professional as possible. Going from watching the CMAs on TV to seeing it live on stage is amazing. Megan and I couldn’t believe our eyes. The biggest country award show I watch every year on TV,...
