Feeling out of place

I collect old books; most were written and published prior to the 1900’s. I have focused my collecting on American history, books that discuss the times and events that occurred much closer to the important events then; that still have ramifications in our lives today.

The sense that I get after reading those stories is that of an almost overwhelming sense of pride in our country and ourselves. It is the exact opposite feeling I get when I watch the evening news or read any of the local or national papers.

I want to be motivated and inspired to do better things and create a better life for my family, I want to believe we can achieve great things. When I watch America’s mass media, I feel like I must be in another place. This isn’t the America I knew and read about as a youngster.

We have somehow lost the ability to feel good about ourselves in this country. We wring our hands over the slightest issues, particularly in cases where it appears as though we may be upsetting someone’s feelings. It seems as though our new national goal is not to offend anyone.

I have to wonder where that will lead us? Are Americans becoming stronger as a nation, are Americans becoming stronger on the global stage? I have come to believe that we as Americans are on the precipice of a dramatic change in our culture. Where that leads to is the interesting question.

Setting the Rules

Teddy Roosevelt preached that the American character was “not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph.”

Yet it seems that we spend an inordinate amount of time trying to live a life of easy peace. That in fact we shirk from danger and hardship and from bitter toil.

 

What do we want for our children? Are we, in America, slowly eroding away the “hard work” ethic and motivation to improve that brought us to this place on the world stage. Is the vast wealth our nation and the quality of life that is has brought, our down fall?