Monthly Archives: August 2011

This past week has been one filled with all the anticipation of a school boy awaiting a field trip as I made my way to the scene of the most significant battleground of the Civil War: Gettysburg. In preparation, I even read a chronicle of the Gettysburg Campaign written by Shelby Foote. You might remember him from the Ken Burns series on the Civil War. I had hoped to broadcast this morning from Cemetery Ridge, in sight of the hallowed ground of Pickett’s Charge where General Armistead breached the Union line but fell amid 6500 of his men who lay dead or wounded; or from the summit of Little Round Top where Colonel Joshua Chamberlain turned away five charges of the 15th Alabama Regiment, preserved a Union victory and earned the Medal of Honor.

A close friend of mine reminded me that the day doesn’t know what history will bring. In life, despite the long rumination of strategic thinking, we are frequently handed unique opportunities that must be acted upon in an instant. We react to the vision in our minds eye on instinct and intuition. In Gettysburg that hot and humid week in July 1863, leaders emerged from the crucible of conflict. Some were expected to lead and could not, others seized the moment and served to rally morale and exhort the most noble and courageous performance from their troops. All were expected to make a decision when minutes counted.

In the three day battle, over 50,000 Americans were killed, wounded, captured or missing. There is no period in American history outside of the Civil War that rivals the scale of human carnage. I was reminded that more than 620,000 soldiers died in those four years, nearly 2% of the US population. Today, such a percentage would claim 6 million lives. Gettysburg is a place to which all Americans should make a pilgrimage to begin to appreciate the sacrifice that Americans are willing to make for America.

This essay is not intended to be a lesson in military history. It is intended to remind us of two things as far as American history is concerned. First, all challenges must be placed in proper perspective. Those at Gettysburg were fighting to preserve a way of life and were willing to place their destiny firmly in the hands of their leaders. Secondly, the most notable leaders emerge amid the great and desperate challenges laid before them. They place country before self.

Let’s fast forward a century and a half to now. Given the headlines that define our current events, one might think that our Union was under siege. Bond ratings are downgraded; the stock market is volatile; we are engaged in foreign conflicts on the far side of the world; our Congress appears impotent; we can’t balance our budget; foreign potentates could call our stifling debt; unemployment is high; and our moral compass seems to be spinning.

All of these maladies afflict us, this is true. But it fails the test of perspective. Ours is a country that has proven in our short but splendid history to be capable of weathering tumultuous storms. In the past 150 years we have witnessed repeated financial scandals, political assassinations of multiple Presidents and civic leaders, two World Wars, a Great Depression that still dwarfs our current economic crisis, a continued quest for civil rights that set cities ablaze in the 1960’s and reflected shame upon our national soul, a war in a far away jungle that tore apart generations, a Presidential resignation and a Presidential impeachment. Need I go on?

We must apply the test of perspective to today’s problems. They are neither historic nor intractable. They were created by us and can be solved by us. There is no genie to come out of a bottle to magically snap a finger to resolve our problems. We don’t need one.

We must demand from those in leadership positions just that: leadership. Our country’s heritage is rife with examples of people who, when confronted with unexpected challenges under crushing pressure, rose to the occasion when called to perform and did so at the precise moment of need. That is all we need right now. Our problems of today do not need a Lincoln to solve.

We have figuratively quartered the horses in Washington to lead the country but do they have half the horsepower and courage as those who spilled their blood on the battlefield of Gettysburg to lead us through the muck and mire of our nations’ challenges? We often speak of the courage of our Founders who pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to birth a nation. That creation has been buttressed four score and seven years plus seven score more by patriots who held true to the noble cause of freedom and who traded their youth that the Union may be preserved.

The day does not know what history will bring. The time for leadership to emerge in Washington is now. Who knows what real problems are in the offing? We owe it to our ancestors and our posterity to place country above politics and to advance this noble experiment called the United States of America.

Press on.

It has been a memorable week to be an American. Credit downgrades, incredible and unpredictable financial volatility on Wall Street and a Republican candidate debate featuring 8 Presidential hopefuls. And there may be 3 or 4 more waiting in the wings. That would be interesting enough to talk about were it not for the other story appearing in every newspaper and television station in the world.

London is burning.

We saw the images on television of rioting and looting; of city blocks ablaze and of people leaping from burning building perches into the arms of strangers below; of seeming Samaritans who turn out to be villains in disguise. We saw this historically most civil of societies disintegrate before our very eyes as London mobs took control of the streets. And those riots spread to Cardiff and Nottingham and Manchester. I travel to Manchester frequently. I cannot fathom it. That is just this past week. We saw it in Greece, too, earlier this year.

“You can’t start a fire without a spark,” the Springsteen song goes. Every spark seems to be different but if there is a common source in this civil discontent, this unlawful rioting and mayhem, it stems from government austerity and the perceived disruption of the flow of entitlement money.

So, the obvious question that comes to my mind is this: Can this happen here in America? I fear the answer is “Yes.” You don’t have to believe me. Listen to the results of this Rasmussen poll from Friday. Forty eight percent of Americans, nearly half, think that cuts in government spending will lead to violence in these United States. Exploring the results further, it appears that younger adults, those under 50, see a higher likelihood than those who are older. In other words, those who might be drawn to violence believe it to be more possible.

Hang in there, it gets more interesting. More people think that cuts in spending will trigger violence than would tax increases. Sounds like a mere statistic until you peel back the layers of the onion. Those who pay taxes, only 50% of us, might protest (witness the Tea Party movement) but would hardly consider setting city blocks on fire. Besides, we’re too busy working. On the other hand, cuts in spending, read entitlements, could bring out to the street those who have skin in the game and time on their hands. We might take away some of which they have grown to expect for merely living in America. And this is what scares me. This is where we look an awful lot like our ancestors across the Atlantic Ocean.

It has happened before in America, this mindless violence. Pick any major American city in the late 1960’s or Los Angeles in the 1990’s. The inner cities go up first and local residents and shop owners are the earliest to be penalized. Their hard labor and earnest endeavor go up in smoke in the first wave. I fear that this violence this time would not stop in the cities. It would spread, perhaps incited by others on the entitlement and government spending gravy train, into the urban suburbs and perhaps into a street near you.

Here is what gets me. The social activists among us, the progressives, tend to look at Europe as if it is the epitome of social responsibility; that the European social safety net that has been constructed is a vibrant model that we should emulate here. The fact is, Europe, with a few exceptions, is a failing continent. They are failing in controlling debt, they are failing in sustainable social expenditure, and they are failing as world power brokers. They are failing in relevance. So why does this administration seek to emulate the path that they in Europe have embarked upon? It makes no sense.

So, is the next logical import street violence and rioting? Is this to be our destiny? I pray not. But we Americans are watching a tennis match between the two parties in Congress with the President acting as the net judge. We must get in the game. The debt compromise was a terrible compromise. Wait until Thanksgiving when the Super Committee on debt reduction will be forced to report out. They will have nothing to show for whatever effort they put in. The Democrats will dig in their heels on tax increases and the Republicans will dig in theirs over spending cuts. The only possible outcome will be across the board spending cuts in Medicare and Defense spending and an inexorable march to November 2012.

This is not leadership, this is not stewardship: this is cowardice. Is there a leader among us who, someday, might be commemorated as were our founders or great crisis leaders have been in legend and song and verse? This is a leadership moment, a teachable moment, in the history of our country. We are rapidly reaching a turning point. Dare I say a burning point? The direction we choose will determine, in large measure, whether America burns next.

Press on.