WE USED TO AS A NATION DO GREAT THINGS

Being of the Sixties generation, we set the DVR to record the CNN series: “The Sixties – The Space Race”.
It was Thanksgiving before we got around to watching it. At first we were caught up in the nostalgia and then the exhilaration of our nation joining the space race and ultimately putting a man on the moon.  But, as we continued to watch, I turned to my wife and said, “We used to as a nation do great things”. She responded, “We used to have lofty goals”.

How sad it is that now we have become a nation of crumbling infrastructure, slow rail, outdated airports, and shabby cities. What happened?  Is ours just another story of a declining civilization brought about by greed and an aristocratic, narcissistic government with politicians focused only on their own enrichment?

How do we bring the country back to its greatest time? Where are the leaders that we need? How do we wrestle our country back from those who have stolen it through the political process? Can we unrig the game?

Let me be perfectly clear. I have traveled this great country of ours, and it is not the people. It is the crazies and the wing-nuts that the media glorifies, but the majority of us are good people who want to work hard, play hard, have a better life for our children and grandchildren. We want once again to aim for the stars and be proud of what our country does.
Yes, there was the Vietnam war; but we ended it.
Yes, there was discrimination; but we put in place the legislation to end it.
Yes, there was disenfranchisement; but we outlawed it.
Yes, there was greed on Wall Street; but we legislated to control it.
Yes, there was sexism; but we cracked the glass ceiling.

Is there no one who will stir the embers of the freedom fire till it roars to life again?

Is there no one who will set their torch to that flame and light the way to greatness again?

Where are you?

Or, was T.S. Eliot correct when he says int The Hollow Men that the world ends “…not with a bang, but a whimper.”