History shows it’s not our worst time

0

Today’s medical and political situation in the United States can easily cause some to think we are going through our country’s most difficult period in our history. This is especially true of the young. We observe the political parties battle each other to the point where you might tend to think that they represent two different countries. And the coronavirus may look like civilization is on the brink of total destruction.

Unless you study your history, you can see why these thoughts might exist. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Politically, ideas as to how this country should operate on a day-to-day, year-to-year, generation-to-generation basis, have existed since day one. This is what makes us the nation that we are.

President Donald Trump is a businessman and functions like a businessman. He makes moves without a lot of meetings, consulting and time wasting mumbo-jumbo. The so-called politicians can’t handle his methods even though they have proven to be most successful so far in his first presidential term.

Jefferson bought the Louisiana Territory without much consulting of Congress. Teddy Roosevelt painted the U.S. fleet white and sent them around the world as a show of our nation’s naval strength. And how would you have like to be in Lincoln’s shoes as he headed for Washington elected president and watching half the country leave the union and set up the confederacy. They are on Mt. Rushmore, not because they failed to act but because they acted with strength and fortitude.

The coronavirus is bad, but let’s look at history. Had you lived during the Civil War, the Spanish Flu of 1918, World War I, the Great Depression of 1929-1940, World Was II, the polio epidemics of the 1950s and hundreds of different times in our history, you would have seen much more stress and turmoil than you see today.

Study your history and you might wake up to what this country is all about and see the true leaders that made it what it is. You might also be glad you did not live during some very difficult periods that easily rival the coronavirus problem.

Tony Lamke

Wilmington

No posts to display