President's Message
One thing is for certain about today. It will end and tomorrow will begin. But, as my brothers from the band Acoustic Junction sang so well, “It’s a Long Way ‘Til Tomorrow.”
Deep within 2020’s frenzied chaos lies something precious: the Grand American Experiment. The origin of the phrase is dubious, but the common meaning and usage refers us to the birth of a modern form of democracy and the inherent, enduring hope for its ideals. America is beautifully imperfect by design. America unceasingly strives to perfect itself despite those beautiful flaws. America has courage in its conviction that, while she may wander left and wander right, her people will ultimately lead America in the direction of its ideals: Democracy, Liberty, Opportunity, Rights, and Equality.
Consider the definition of the American Dream by James Truslow Adams in 1931. That “dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. ... It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.”
It is always morning in America.
The “Star Spangled Banner” was penned during the War of 1812, when Francis Scott Key witnessed the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in Maryland. As the sun rose, Key saw a single U.S. flag still flying over Fort McHenry and wrote the following: “And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.”
Our flag continues to fly over a pandemic in mid-whipsaw over an already exhausted people, over fiery clashes between political ideologues unwilling to compromise, over tragic violent racial and social unrest, AND over a decade worth of natural disasters in just ten months.
We may be down, but we’re not out.
Bruce
