Through the Lens (The Coming War)
For over seven decades I have been hearing political speeches and promises. I remember watching President Dwight D. Eisenhower on our small black and white TV as far back as 1956. Did not understand his words, but my dad told me he was a famous general. I had toy plastic soldiers I played with in a dirt pile behind our house, so I knew what a general was, the guy in the jeep.
Later I remember seeing President John Kenndy. For some reason, I knew he was a great man. When he spoke, it was as if he was speaking directly to me. I had a vivid imagination even back then. Mrs. Flanigan came into our classroom wiping her eyes, “The President is dead”. I also cried for a man I had only seen on TV.
Since that time, I have watched and listened. What politicians say, you must take with a grain of salt or a good shot of Kentucky Rye. Since President Nixon stepped away from his office, it seems we all mistrust the person who sits in the White House. Politicians don’t speak of what they can do for the people, but what the people can do for conservatism or liberalism. Those are ideals, not the needs of the people. They hide the skeletons in their closets while shining light into their opponents’ dark secrets. Remember Jimmy Carter’s younger brother, Billy. People were more interested in his antics than in the good President Carter was trying to carry out. We tend to have lost our ways when allowing candidates to direct our attention to what they want us to believe, instead of the real things every day people want to understand.
In the last dozen years, the race for president has become a mudslinging event that could be an Olympic sport. We hear more about sex, drugs and lying. Where is the conversation about raising the education levels in our country to other progressive countries? Where are the programs to help the elderly with the cost of drugs? The President brags about lowering the cost of insulin. While drug manufacturers raised the cost on other needed drugs. Washington speaks of the need to drill and bring more energy into the power needs of our country. At the same time shiploads of coal, oil and gasoline are being shipped all over the world. There will come a time when America needs outgrow supply. I will bet some future president wishes that we hadn’t been so greedy for money, that we sold our future children’s energy supply.
Over one hundred and sixty years ago our country divided itself along strong feelings of rights. The south felt they had the right to own slaves. The north believed no one had the right to own another person. Family, towns, states divided, and a war broke out over beliefs. The line between the north and south was clear and divided our nation.
Today we have once again become a divided nation. Not state against state, but families against families, political parties that promote conservatism over liberalism and vice versa. The divide may not be north and south, but it can be a picket fence line between neighbors.
A little over three and half years ago on January 6th, our country saw live on the news the beginning of a war that has been festering in homes, factories and the halls of congress.
National polling of voters shows numbers are too close to call. Our current President has a long history of leadership in government. And yet having said that, time and mother nature are claiming some of the skills and knowledge he has acquired in forty years. On the other hand, the Candidate says he will lose the dogs of power over the people, government agencies, environmental progress, and your personal rights. If the Constitution says it clearly you may keep the right. But if it is written in law overseen by the Supreme court, you may lose something important to you.
No matter the outcome of the election, violence and harm will befall a sector of the country’s citizens. People will die for their beliefs on both sides. War is coming, and you or I cannot stop it. Eighty years ago, a leader in Europe convinced his country’s people that their lot in life was because one class of people had taken it from them. He also divided the country until he had control and then no one dared speak up. Today Liberals and Democrats are the thieves a former president speaks of.
Our country is not only divided along political lines, but a long line of anger. Conversation often breaks down into arguments over the issue of liberalism versus conservatism. The cost of gas is high, that is because environmentalists caused the increase. Cost of fresh food is high because unions and illegals from south of the border cause it. Medical care and prescriptions are out of reach because government regulation caused it. It is always someone else’s fault, and yet no political party on either side has really changed the direction our country is headed.
War is coming! By the end of this year the first battles will have been fought. Maybe over the picket fence separating you and your neighbor. At least that’s how I see the coming election is taking our country as I look Through the lens.