Dexter Iowa Community Site

Consider this quote from Abe Lincoln

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

I spend more than my fair share of time on the road and in turn I listen to quite a bit of talk radio to keep me occupied. Recently I was flipping channels and was somewhat startled by what I was listening to. A number of people were discussing the topic of democracy and if it would continue considering what was going on in the world and in this country. From war with Korea to the concern that President Trump would declare himself Emperor for life there was much mashing of teeth and head holding going on. In fact it almost occurred to me at one point that I should probably just pull over to the side of the road and step out into traffic because the “expert” on the radio was sure that the world was coming to an end and soon enough we would all be living in a police state.

As a student of history I find some of this talk interesting but not really all that new, although I’ve been wracking my brain trying to remember where I’ve heard it before. Was it during the early days of the Lincoln administration, or perhaps during the New Deal policies of FDR and I even remember there were shades of Reagan’s policies that drove people to wonder if the earth would survive past a war with the Soviet Union. It may even surprise you that these same sentiments were voiced during the presidencies of Washington, Jefferson and Adams. In every decade and with every new administration there are some who will stand in the middle of the commons and spout eloquently about and impending doom and in a way we buy it only because in some dark corner of our minds we question our own resolve.

If we need a more recent example of jumping to conclusions before we had all the information we have to look no further than a couple of weeks ago when the administration announced that they would place tariffs on China and that government responded back with a tit for tat scenario. Of course the markets went crazy and the traders on Wall Street fueled the hysteria of something that may or may not even come in this global game of chicken. Iowa’s own delegation to Washington and the leaders in the USDA advised the President of what could happen in the agriculture community and the folks watching the grain markets have also chimed in, reminding producers that South America cannot hope to supply the Worlds soybean needs. Certainly the loss of market share in China would have some affect here, but it may not be as long lasting as what has been proposed. It wasn’t long before the government in Beijing were starting to dance around about backing down.

Do we have problems in this country and are there probably more than a few eyebrow raising things going on in chunks of the current administration? Oh you know it, but we also need to remember that the amazing part of being a citizen is that we have the power to come together and create whatever change we need to. Our main problem is that we haven’t really found anything to come together on as a people to get past the division that has been created over and over again in my lifetime. King’s dream is something we should all want and aspire for, yet in all corners of our society we find that even those fighting for that dream are guilty of doing damage to making that dream come true. So calm down, take a deep breath and just continue to do the right thing and let’s all move in the same direction for once and for the right reasons. See you next week…remember we’re all in this together.