It is a long and arduous process to create a “more perfect union” as stated in our Declaration of Independence. Over the almost 250 years since this country’s founding, this process has certainly had its fits and starts.
Despite the initial noble acclamation “that all men are created equal’, it was many decades after this declaration before black persons were emancipated from chattel slavery. It was even longer before women were able to vote despite the multiple indispensable contributions of women toward the creation and functioning of this country. It was not until the 1930’s that a more secure aging process and help for those in need was greatly assisted by the creation of the Social Security program.
I think most of us consider that these types of actions are beneficial and even just. But, let’s note that they and many other changes were not present at the founding of this country. It was due to our organizing mechanism that allowed a process geared toward making life better for everyone. I also think most of us think this process of what we could call continuous improvement is worthwhile.
There is common acknowledgement that there were great persons involved in the creation of this country. One of them, if not the most notable, is George Washington. One of the richest men in the colonies, he endured many brutal wartime hardships while dedicating most of his life to setting this country on a course that is considered one of the shining examples in world history of how society can function with the goal of making life better for all.
For me, one of the most important characteristics that make this country special is the moral integrity of many of its leaders. I mention George Washington in this vein, but he was not the only one in our nation’s history we can point towards.
I bring this forward because I feel and I know many other people do as well, that we have very much the opposite of moral integrity in the present leadership of this country.
Among a blitz of government fueled violence, revenge based prosecutions, threats and questionably illegal international forays, I normally would aim to pick apart such current affairs and actions associated with this administration as wrongheaded and detrimental in this column. But I find myself coming back to a stark starting point - bad people do bad things.
I ask each of us who may have thought they wanted a positive change in this country and chose to vote for this leadership and administration to generate such changes to check our moral compass. For me the list is too long to enumerate what I see as failings of this administration and our President - and the list grows daily.
Maybe some of you feel that way about at least some of the actions going on. For example, do we feel that enacting revenge against incorrectly perceived wrongs against our President should be a national priority? Do we feel OK about the recent gaslighting of the death of an unarmed woman by Federal law enforcement when we can view the situation with our own eyes and know at least there should be a full and fair investigation without prejudgement? Are we OK with summary killings of people in boats far from the USA without any justification of why it had to be handled that way?
We can see from polls that many Americans are not happy and appear ready to participate to end what they see as perhaps, not just a hiccup in our process of improving our nation and the wellbeing of its citizens, but a serious threat that will destroy the mechanism that enables such a process. We can see that we are being torn apart over this.
Our peaceful method to express our political desires is having an election to select how we want our process toward improving and managing this country to move forward. The 2026 midterm election is our upcoming opportunity to do so. What we should all fear is that this election will be blocked from happening or the results severely disputed to the detriment of our national well-being by those that feel they lost. This would seem to be an unreasonable concern in the past, but have we not already seen our election process falsely and ominously disparaged by our President along with our scarred memory of him instilling horrific violence for losing an election in January 2021?
I fear that we have a Federal Government that has become so arbitrary, capricious, and violent such that we are no longer able to resolve logical disagreements over policy or even facts. This “go my way or hit the the highway” approach to the point of creating seemingly irreconcilable differences among us is not what we say we are about. As historical videographer Ken Burns has said - what we should want is to keep the “us” in the U.S.
W Laurence Doxsey, Retired, Former Director of Office of Sustainability for City of San Antonio, former Environmental Officer for US Department of Housing and Urban Development, former Sustainability Officer for City of Austin, resides outside Medina.
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