For which it stands

I'm always tempted to write, because I do think and believe, that we are at some showdown in the history of the United States. That, on a day coming soon, either those in present power, or the rule of law, will win. They cannot both survive. Surely they are two quite different things headed at each other on a course for conflict. The thing of infinite speed meets the immovable object, as it were.

Well, that is a case, I think after, but not THE case.

The real showdown is a test of two sides. The opposing forces are not really partisan, and although in the current climate they may align in manner, I can imagine the reverse. The true question is which matters more – the ideals of the American founding, or the power accumulated since then?

A life of a nation may well be considered in the life of a human being. You are young, you encounter turbulence, you overcome, you prosper – ah, but then, but always then, there shall come a decline. The United States, especially after WWII, grew more giant than a tiger the world has ever seen. Many will point to the underskirt – the rule of law, democracy, freedom of speech – that propelled it to this level. But has a winner at anything ever doubted their professed virtue in the hour of conquest? When all roads led to Rome, did the Romans tally the score in objective ways? As China has catapulted in stratospheric bounds, has it laid bare its grievances against itself? No and no and no.

All of life and nations and man and woman shall feel the ebb and flow should any one continue long enough. Perhaps it is only after the peak of the sun when the true reflection can begin. When shadows start to grow long and not in favor. When the skin slinks instead of tightens. When the muscles slow. When the American Century winds down.

Well, it should be a moment of grace. It should be, if we are to slip a little, that we go back to what gave us the rise and live it out the best we can. In a perfect world, and with a perfect person, there would be no question. So other economies will rise? So there could come a point where we cannot rule everything and everyone?

So what?

If we are to cry at this, we are to ignore all that the United States has done for the world. The rule of law. Democracy. Freedom of Speech. These seem so quaintly institutionalized in so many nations that we can forget, if we do not look back, how in only our grandparents’ generation, these were not guaranteed. Millions upon millions perished in the corners created where these shafts of light failed to shine.

Shall we be the nation of John Adams and George Washington or Apple?

Can we not sit somewhere, maybe at the edge of the table and instead of the center, and like a gray-haired wise one, appreciate the change we have left in ripples upon the water? It is easy to think, as a young and lively beast, that you will live forever. But it is a mark of wisdom to let go in the evening. It is quite a thing to age well.

And to age well, we must, be us a man or woman or nation, hold dear to those values we treasure. Those themes and truths we put out into the world. Those ones who, in other homes down the block, burn bright in the homefires. THAT is our legacy. THAT is what our children fought about. And THAT is what this country was all about, ever. Not Hollywood, or Nikes. Not McDonald’s. Can you, with a serious face, ask a person to die for the shareholders?

Let us end here or begin anew with the deaths of so many millions making sense. Not for a flavor of the month, but some kind of legacy. The rule of law, democracy, free speech.

Let us not slip in anger, or a chance at vengeance. Let us live. And if we defeat another enemy, who has passed the porous border at the edges of our weakness of freedom, let us strike back. At least let’s strike back with all the strength still left.

Not like this, Americans. Don’t let it end like this. When a half hated the other half enough to burn the house down. Not like this.