The content to follow is largely intended for those of you in your teenage years. It is an appeal, a plea, for you to earnestly consider and accept the role you must play in shaping and ensuring the future of our great land. The underlying questions and challenges are clear! Will the United States of America continue to be the greatest country on earth a decade from now? Will we continue to preserve and cherish the liberty and freedoms our founding fathers envisioned for us? Will we continue to be that beacon of hope and light for the free world? The answers to these questions are central and we must all be attentive to the responses, but I would contend that your generation may be the one that is most compelled to provide enduring solutions.
Presently our country seems almost hopelessly divided in so many ways. Pick an issue, a belief, or even the very foundation upon which our country was built. Chances are in most cases there will be something close to a 50/50 split on what is virtuous about our country, what is right or wrong, or even what is true or false. I look back on an America where people could believe in different things, value different behaviors, or have different points of view. But all that being true, we could still have a civil debate and arrive at middle ground. We must be honest with ourselves. Today’s problems are monumental; but without some consideration and acceptance of each other’s views and perspectives it will be extremely difficult to reach mutual solutions. Solutions that would be to all of our benefit and would further the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness that we thought was guaranteed by our founding.
Is that guarantee now in jeopardy? Can we only come together under extraordinary circumstances such as a war that threatens our very existence, or after another horrific terrorist attack? Are we reaching the point where the generations before you may lack the mettle to secure the greatness of our country because of divisiveness and irrational distrust? Has the well been poisoned with wrong-headed ideals, tainted thinking, and uncompromising relations? Is our republic threatened by unprecedented levels of political hypocrisy, dishonesty, corruption, and distain for the rule of law? Has our media been invaded by deceit and dishonesty to the point that what we see and hear is nothing more than propaganda?
Great leaders from our past have espoused the greatness of America, but they have also counselled that this greatness is fragile. They’ve declared that if the American Experiment were to fail it would not be because of external threats, but rather, upheaval from within. Other great civilizations from the past are signposts of that reality. Have we embarked on that road to destruction? I can’t say, but the fear that I feel is wrought by the mere possibility that that could be the case. I hope, beyond even my normal degree of logic and rationality, that I am very wrong about all of this; that the current strife will pass; that generations in front of you can reconcile; and that we can get back to some semblance of normalcy. Some have said that America may be teetering on the precipice of another civil war. While I can’t gauge the aptness of that claim, I do not doubt that we are in fact in an uncivil war. We very much need a timeout, a period of renewal, a re-establishment of the ideals and principles that made us great.
I am able to derive a sense of optimism from your generation, but I must also give warning to the fact that in today’s world you will be barraged from all sides by a gamut of views and perspectives. What you hear from your teachers, on social media, or even from your friends will span a broad range of thoughts, philosophies, and ideologies. The best advice I can give you at this point is to keep an open mind; but you must also do your own due diligence and reach your own conclusions by viewing and judging what you see and hear through your own beliefs system. In doing that I hope you will have the wisdom to recognize and honor America’s greatness; and the courage to defend it from all internal and external threats. We are as divided now as ever, and we need YOU more than ever to bring some sensibility and civility back to our country and our people. YOU can endeavor to change our course, albeit in the face of near hurricane force winds, but YOU must trim the sails if we are to avoid being dashed against the rocks.