- Credits:
- Helen's Place LLC
Archive | Historical Interest: Helen’s Place LLC April 08, 2021
On August 21, 2017, American’s watched the solar eclipse from coast to coast, rejoicing with astonishment at the power of the universe. Then President Trump diminished its glow with a dark, confusing speech on Afghanistan.
Front and center were the negative aspect of his world view. He appeared to be fear mongering for his own personal, political gain.
Some worried that his presidency would hurt the American brand around the world by eroding relationships with other countries, and ultimately cost American jobs. His tough talk about hunting down terrorists as his priority rather than working to build a better nation raised concern;
Beyond Afghanistan, what was graver was his effect on the American spirit.
Over time we became tougher, meaner, and divided as a nation. We stopped caring about each other’s welfare to the point that when the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020, millions of people jaded by lies didn’t get vaccinated. This led to the deaths of thousands of people that could have been prevented.
Then when the January 6, 2021 insurrection happened to keep Trump in power, the culture war exploded. This may be the greatest test to date of America’s emotional fitness to hold on to its highest values. Under siege is America’s spirit of optimism, vision, and democracy.
But just as lightning strikes the earth, Americans know that bad things happen to good people and we’ve survived bad times before.
Fortunately, if our past is any indicator, it’s not part of America’s spirit to dwell on the dark side and be stopped by it for too long. We have a history of believing that we have important work to do and better days ahead.
Will American hold fast to its beacon of hope, peace and prosperity – projecting light around the world?
It’s America after all – with the astonishing record of luck and political leadership that emerges in the nick of time; like Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, and Barack Obama in 2008, both of whom gave us hope that America was on the right track.
America has the uncanny ability to figure things out when all seem lost.
Related audio/video recording:
A beacon of hope in dark times:
NPR Transcript Of Barack Obama’s November 5, 2008 Victory Speech and audio recording:
Other related article you may be interested in:
Helen’s Place LLC, March 01, 2017, “Archived: American Impact-Should Trump to be Cheered or Feared?”
The original version of this article was first published on August 22, 2017. Your comments are greatly appreciated. Send them to Helen’s Place LLC via email to info@helensplacenet.com.
