Foundations Cracked?

The past days have found me thinking back to the Boeing 737 MAX 8 issue which dominated the news for a number of weeks and is now completely silent.  That remembrance got me thinking about this past year and how the foundations of our society have been under severe attack and have seemed to crack.  Then an editorial from the Omaha World Herald on June 12, 2020 spurred more thought and now this musing.   First a few lines from the editorial:

Hey, 2020, lighten up!  

Dear 2020:  Stop it! …

In his narrative history of America from 1932-72, “The Glory and the Dream,” William Manchester titled the chapter on 1968 “The Year Everything went Wrong.”

’68 brought us the Tet Offensive, the seizure of the USS Pueblo, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, a summer of urban and antiwar strife, the Chicago Democratic Convention, the crash of an armed Strategic Air Command B-52 in Greenland and much more. … But again, 1968 also gave us Bob Gibson’s marvelous 1.12 earned run average and Denny McLain’s 30 win season.  [and PK graduated from HS!]

I remember 1968 and the ruckus that had engulfed our country and I do find 2020 similar.  I am glad in many ways we weathered 1968 although there were significant changes that came from those days.  Time will tell what survives these days and what changes. So now I come to my ponderings about this past year and back to the MAX 8 thought…

The Economic Foundation:  Boeing is one of the iconic businesses of the United States creating many jobs, great wealth, and having a worldwide impact.  After two terrible crashes killing hundreds, the MAX 8 was finally grounded and investigations started.  Corruption was uncovered and the stock plummeted.  The once rock solid American company was wounded.

The Voting Foundation:  The election of our president in 2016 was thought to have been heavily influenced by Russia.  So sure were many that millions of dollars were spent in a probe headed by Robert Mueller to get to the truth.  It was declared that because of collusion with Russia, the president could possibly be the first to spend time in jail.  In the end, no collusion was found but a fear about voting accuracy was planted.

The Head of State Foundation:  The House of Representatives initiated articles of impeachment against the president alleging abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.   The House passed the articles along party lines but the Senate quickly dispatched the articles.  Yet a precedent was possibly set in order to sidetrack or slow a president from his calling.

The First Amendment Foundation:  In January we first heard about the coronavirus hitting Wuhan in China and shortly after it was ashore.  Suddenly much of life was slowed if not stopped.  People out of fear and threat stayed home for weeks attempting to avoid the pandemic.  The injection of fear allowed government to curtail rights that had forever marked the country.

The One Nation Foundation:  The murder of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin along with the murder of Ahmaud Arbery by three white men in GA both caught on video and played over and over sent peoples to the streets in protest for many days.  The race issue was inflamed and the realization that oneness under God was far from true – maybe worse than just a year ago.

The Law and Order Foundation:  Flowing out of the protests came property damage, looting, and even death to demonstrators and protectors.  Watching buildings – including St John’s church nursery – and vehicles being burned in the streets was troubling.  Also troubling was the inability of the police to rule.  The end was a diminishing of law and order (today in 1215 the Magna Carta was signed in England declaring that all men, including the king, were to be under the law).

Are the Foundations in tact?  Mostly.  Are they damaged?  They sure seem to be.