Here at Chatterbox, we discussed the concept of the future long ago.
It’s a concept difficult to pinpoint. We think of it as far away, our distant life, but even “later today” is the future. It is always in front of us, on its way, but it never really arrives because the instant it does, it’s not the future anymore, and there’s a different future ahead. So, it’s more a wheel than a plane. At all rates, that mystical, nearly indefinable future remains always in the process of arriving.
Regular Chattereaders know too much about me, mine and my life. One of my husband’s often mentioned characteristics is that he is a history buff and a voracious reader who loves to share. He occasionally references the profundity of the speech Dwight D. Eisenhower made to Americans when he was preparing to leave office. Nearly two years in the writing, and spot on to boot, for most people today it’s a moment in history, but in reality it was a post-World War II warning … a plea for our future.
Most Chattereaders know that I’m a boomer. Most boomers had, or lost, someone who fought in World War II, a war that was, sadly, very necessary; not all are. We should remember there was no “tour of duty” then. As George M. Cohan wrote: “We won’t be back, ’til it’s over ...” It always makes me cry. Until it was over, they all gave, all day and night, every day and night. They were heroes, as all who serve are.
Many Chattereaders also know that, like countless other people around the world, I lost a close family member fighting the plague of The Axis powers. Almost everyone has lost someone they know or love in the cumulative count of the wars we’ve fought over the nearly 2½ centuries that define this land as the America we know today.
If we are true patriots, we are identified by what we believe is best for America’s future and all her people. Here at Chatterbox, we talk a lot about this because it is not only what defines true Americans as a group, but it is what defines our future as one single society. That phrase, one single society, is so important to remember. It is this unity as a single society that gives us our greatest strength to achieve great things, and great things for a whole society are never those which benefit small clusters or unique groups. Those among us who foster or incite division, double standards, or advocate for rights to be enjoyed selectively, weaken us as a nation. They are not on America’s side.
When any of us thinks about the reasons heroes risk their life in the defense of a society, we must remember that the brave risk that most precious gift in the hope, promise, and human commitment of that society, all for the sake of others.
Most of us love this country. We don’t believe any fraction of it should ever be up for grabs. We don’t feel privileges are for some and not others. We don’t believe it should be sold off, even if only one building, to other nations. We don’t believe it should predominantly benefit, be seized or controlled by, or dictated to, by anyone, singular or plural, who buy the cooperation of those who were elected to represent ‘we the people.’
On my Chatterbox business card, for over 20 years, are the words of Thomas Jefferson: “Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.” This is deeply profound, but it can be adapted to all things. Our nation has reached the dreaded place that Eisenhower warned us about and gone far beyond it. More American rights succumb every day to the quiet coup d’état that has risen to take over our country, a threat from within.
In the memory of those who fought any of the good fights for this nation, we should protect the promised freedoms … for all … not just those of power, money, position, or influence, not just for those of certain birthrights, skin color, or the now oft-mentioned Judeo/Christian society some insist America was always intended to be. Rather, for all of us, as one people, one power. We all know this and can’t allow anyone to modify it.
We must keep the true American perspective; that’s the one that stabilizes us as a whole and establishes liberty, equality, and justice for all. There cannot be any fine print.
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