SETH BARRETT TILLMAN: On Reconciliation. “It is said that at the negotiations at Appomattox Courthouse Lee and Grant were both frank and civil during the course of discussing the surrender of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Afterwards, Grant sent food to Lee to feed his (and, then, their) nation’s former enemy soldiers. Celebrations for Grant’s soldiers came only later not while Lee’s soldiers remained present. Again, in ending active hostilities, the first step towards national reconciliation was frank and civil discourse. I do not think our present and future is or will be as difficult as was Grant and Lee’s. But we too have to think about national reconciliation.”