Jeff—Saturday
Last night, while subliminally trying to process in my
dreams all that’s happening in the United States these days, an epiphany came
to me; one comforting in the historical perspective it offered on all that’s so
plainly wrong-headed in our government these days.
It came via the image of my brother, Ken, who passed away
far too young. A remarkable man, whose
image I carry with me—and here’s the important part—always seeing him at the
age at which he left us. As he did in life, he brought solace to my here and
now. Perhaps he will for you too.
For many, the wrenching shocks to our system—gutted
healthcare, denigrated science and technology, an assailed environment, ignored
societal responsibilities, belittled gender equivalency and respect, eviscerated
voting rights, faux taxation evenhandedness, institutionalized conflicts of
interest, compromised foreign policy, etcetera, all seem far too much to bear.
But the world will change, and our priorities with it, and
things will return to balance. Most
importantly, history will judge—harshly and unbiased—based upon the facts
before it when it does.
In that knowledge I find my comfort.
Our leaders seem possessed by an unbridled drive to
eradicate all evidence of the prior administration’s legislative
existence. In choosing that path, they
now face a decidedly clear historical consequence. History will not be able to tell whether the
prior administration’s well intentioned efforts would have succeeded or
failed. All that history will record is
that those efforts were immediately renounced by the new administration, and
whatever happens next, is all on the shoulders of the new guys.
In other words, a new Camelot has been created, one that will
have the past administration living on in the memory of its grand intentions,
while its destroyers will be judged on the consequences of their ravages.
Time will tell…the truth.
—Jeff
