A Thought On Current Times.

Nobody could have imagined what this year would bring forth when we turned the page from 2019 to this new decade.  We have likely gone through the most trying period in our history that most Americans can remember.  We have seen horrible examples of human nature while at the same time some of the noblest.  At times the mob has ruled.  At the same time peaceful protesters have exercised their constitutional right to be heard.  Many have sacrificed so much fighting this pandemic while others have taken advantage of it to sow discord.  

Through it all people of good faith have looked through the darkness and tried to picture a possible better tomorrow.  Many have tried, just as Abraham Lincoln did when he was sworn in at his first inaugural, to appeal to "the better angels of our nature".   Many things stand out for me from what we've seen in the past month but one of the lasting images comes from watching video of an event where a mob had moved in to beat a policeman and a group of protestors formed a chain of protection around him.  The protestors were men, women, white and black.  Amongst many things they were out there protesting police brutality, yet they stopped to protect this fallen man.  That's "the better angels of our nature" on display.  Lincoln wanted and was determined to keep the American Union together.  I have often wondered if he would have been so persistent in that goal if he'd been told as he was being sworn in what the cost would be.  But persist he did through a long and catastrophic Civil War and here we are today.

Back in December I wrote a post for this blog called "The Press is Bunk!  Thoughts on Political Discord".  The basic argument of that piece was that there is more that unites us as a nation than the press and popular culture would have you believe.  I have been asked by more than a few if I still believe that {I do} while some have challenged my beliefs.  Here's my response.  

There were parts of that article that I cut for a variety of reasons, length being a principle concern.  Below I'll insert what I left out back then.

"And we are good at fighting.  You could argue that it’s bred into our DNA.  The country was birthed in revolution and we’ve experienced or known how to use violence ever since. We know how to throw a punch or fling venom with words.  That was as true in 1789 as in 2019.  Divided we may be over events and times but we are also bound together by some very powerful words.

If America has any gift to the world it is in these words found in our Declaration of Independence:  “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  Today we argue about many things too exhaustive to mention but nearly every level of social strife we’ve seen in the past two hundred plus years have been citizens demanding us to uphold these words.    Sadly, we often have not lived up to those ideals.  For we are imperfect creatures.  We are unlikely to ever achieve that perfect shining city on a hill which John Winthrop first spoke of and Ronald Reagan made famous.   But the genius of America is that history has shown we try.  For every force that would try to negate the Declaration, there will always be those that point to it and demand we put paid to what those words mean.  Good men and women have died protecting our rights to have what these words say are ours, while many have suffered over the years clamoring that we live up to the ideals these words enshrine.  That is as true today as it was in the past."

It is my Midwestern roots that cause me to be a long-term optimist and bull on our American experiment.  While these times have been trying I find comfort in that we have seen far worse than this and made it through.  I believe we will do so again and will emerge a better people for it.  

Somebody else who thought that way was Robert Kennedy who while running for President in 1968 had to look out onto a crowd in Indianapolis on April 4th, 1968, and announce that Martin Luther King had been killed.  Many that had come to see him were African-American.  Kennedy himself would be dead in just over two months time, but on that night he delivered a speech that holds as true today as when he delivered it in 1968.  I will post what he said in a supplemental post under this one given the length of this piece.

I don't do politics on this blog as I've said many times.  I do comment on the American spirit from time to time.  While things have been tough, I'll repeat my long term optimism.  God bless to you all and God bless to this country.  Stay healthy and safe and have a wonderful holiday.

I won't be back posting till sometime after the 4th of July holiday.