Commentary

Posted in: Commentary
Commentary: The Greatness of this Nation is a Blessing - But Not a Gift
By Mitch Traphagen
Jul 17, 2008 - 8:39:28 PM

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For some of us, it might be getting more difficult by the day to watch the news or check out a daily newspaper.  It seems the news is bad and getting worse.  The economy is in the tank, banks are failing, the price of gas rises with abandon while the stock market falls.  Inflation is up and wages are down.

Have things ever been as bad as they are right now?  What kind of a world are we leaving to our children?

It turns out that things have been as bad in the past - in fact, they have been worse.  As for the kind of world we are leaving for our children… well, that’s a question that almost every generation has had to ask.

Do you think our rights are being eroded today?

Certainly, there were few bright days nearly 150 years ago.  President Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus across the nation, effectively placing the United States under martial law during the Civil War.  On top of that, an estimated 620,000 Americans lost their lives during the war.

Eventually, the Supreme Court ruled against Lincoln stating that civilians could not be tried under military tribunals as long as civilian courts were still operating.  Martial law was suspended.  Ultimately, the nation overcame the war, the perceived threat to liberty and the massive loss of life.

Do you think corporate and government scandals are a sign of our time?

In 1872, Congressman Oakes Aimes, a Republican  from Massachusetts, sat atop the Credit Mobilier scandal in which members of congress were given cheap shares of Union Pacific Railroad stock in exchange for continued funding of the transcontinental railroad.  In the end, at least 30 members of congress and, possibly, one future president, had received stock and the nation was bilked for $73 million in contracts for $53 million in work.  Union Pacific and the legitimate investors were left nearly bankrupt.

Do you think problems with oil and no bid contracts are new?  Think again.

In 1922, Albert Fall, a Republican senator from New Mexico and Secretary of the Interior, provided leases to private companies for U.S. oil fields on public land that had been reserved for emergency use - all without competitive bidding.  In exchange, Fall received gifts in excess of $400,000 from those companies - a good chunk of change in the day.  He attempted to keep what would become known as the Teapot Dome scandal a secret - but the rather sudden improvement in his quality of life proved a bit more difficult to conceal.  Fall became the first member of a presidential cabinet to go to prison.

And politics?  Today’s news has nothing on the past.

While the two above scandals are centered on Republicans, the kids on the other side of the aisle haven’t exactly been angelic.  If nothing else, Democrats could receive a perseverance award for the Tammany Society - an organization that effectively controlled elections for more than a century by exploiting government contracts, and using jobs and corruption as means to their end.  The Tammany Society, with roots that stretch back to Aaron Burr and the late 1700s, was still at work within the lifetime of Americans still living today.

And speaking of Burr, he was a Vice President of the United States who was accused of treason, allegedly for his plans to create an independent nation in what would become the American Southwest.  Oh yeah, he also killed Alexander Hamilton, the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, in a duel.

Do you think jobs are scarce and the economy is in the toilet?  Think again.

In 1932, the unemployment rate in the U.S. was nearly 25 percent, stocks had lost nearly 80 percent of their value and nearly 40 percent of the nation’s banks had failed.  At one point in 1933, yet another run on the banks was beginning to develop so President Roosevelt ordered all banks closed for the day to stop the run.

By the next year, the economy was turning around but it would be years before things in the U.S. resembled anything that a young person today could conceive.  In those years, the entire world became mired in war and the public endured rationing of everything from sugar to gasoline.  People needed government provided coupons just to buy shoes.

This brief history isn’t meant to minimize what we are going through today - but rather it is meant to put things in perspective.  Scandals and downfall are as much a part of American history as honest hard work and success.  The point is that each time we have fallen as a nation, we picked ourselves back up and became stronger.  We sometimes ran, sometimes limped through a long and storied history to become the greatest and most powerful nation the world has ever seen.  Nearly 40 years ago, Americans walked on the Moon - a feat no other nation has yet accomplished.  We have invented and reinvented so much through the years - I am certain that we are not finished yet.

The world isn’t coming to an end - not even close.  What we are going through now is nothing more than what every generation has gone through - some may rightly say that we are, in fact, having a much easier time of it in comparison.  The United States of America, an experiment that began as a ragtag collection of not-so cooperative states, has faced a continual stream of challenges and has not only always overcome, it has emerged better than before.  We started at the bottom and rose to the top.  We are still at the top.

If you aren’t happy with how things are going, you have been granted the power by the Founding Fathers to affect change.  Shut off the TV, get up off the couch and do something for yourself or your neighbors or your community.  You and I are the living embodiment of the American Spirit and the American Dream and together we can work miracles.  

That is exactly what our parents did; that’s what their parents did.  The greatness of this nation is a blessing but not a gift.  We have to work for it.



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