Thoughts for July 3,2013

[Rob9641]

I'll be shortly heading out the door for the Gettysburg battlefield, and I am thinking about how our nation might truly have been born 150 years ago, today and tomorrow. It's making me shake.

History is what it is. I'm not considering "what ifs" here, but "what was." With Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, we put our feet, as a nation, more solidly on the road that's led us here. We treasure government of the people rather than of the aristocracy. We have a pretty dammed free exchange of ideas from everybody on venues like books, newspapers, and the internet. We've struggled our way through racial and cultural bigotry - and we're not though the struggle yet, but we are moving through it toward a day when all people are judged by the content of their character.

When I despair over the attitudes of some of the people around me who prefer to act as if the needs and feelings of others are not only irrelevant, but despicable, I look back on Gettysburg and Vicksburg and how far we've come since then. Our cultural view of which people matter, who should have a say, who should have a chance at life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, began to evolve meaningfully during the Civil War. We've been able to come this far in part because of July 3 and 4, 1863.

On days like this, I wish I could live another 50 years to see how we will be in 2063.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

When I'm feeling a little battered, or more than usual, by the struggle with that despair mentioned sometimes, will have to remember to come back to this now-bookmarked page, read this another 3 times.

Thank you.

 

[godofredus]

Thank you. I graduated from college in 1963. I watched the first episode of Mad Men and almost threw up because it reminded me of how bad things used to be. You are so right, we have moved so far. I will re-read your post frequently, it shows me how others feel the same way I do.

 

[James N.]

On days like this, I wish I could live another 50 years to see how we will be in 2063.

Not me - I consider that in the past half-century I've witnessed the continued bloating of and intrusive control by the overreaching Federal government, made possible to a great extent by the defeat of States' Rights and the resulting stifiling political climate created by the monster, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS. The so-called Greatest Generation that survived the Depression, defeated Fascism, spawned my own generation, and propelled our Nation to the position of world leadership soon gave way to the Great Society of intrusive Socialism and world disdain in the wake of unwarranted foriegn intervention that despite our own frequent "regime changes" really hasn't abated to this day. The Civil War Centennial was for me a time of optimism, both National and personal; now I'm only too glad to see the Sesquicentinnial in and through my own disillusionment and retirement.

 

[ExNavyPilot]

Not me - I consider that in the past half-century I've witnessed the continued bloating of and intrusive control by the overreaching Federal government, made possible to a great extent by the defeat of States' Rights and the resulting stifiling political climate created by the monster, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS. The so-called Greatest Generation that survived the Depression, defeated Fascism, spawned my own generation, and propelled our Nation to the position of world leadership soon gave way to the Great Society of intrusive Socialism and world disdain in the wake of unwarranted foriegn intervention that despite our own frequent "regime changes" really hasn't abated to this day. The Civil War Centennial was for me a time of optimism, both National and personal; now I'm only too glad to see the Sesquicentinnial in and through my own disillusionment and retirement.

Political correctness now is nowhere near the monster it was 50-60 years ago, when McCarthyism, Jim Crow, blue laws, etc, ruled the roost. But as all this tends toward modern political discussion, I'll hold my tongue further.

 

[James N.]

Political correctness now is nowhere near the monster it was 50-60 years ago, when McCarthyism, Jim Crow, blue laws, etc, ruled the roost. But as all this tends toward modern political discussion, I'll hold my tongue further.

You make a good point - I'd forgotten just how annoying those stupid Blue Laws were!