Similarities, 2020 vs. 1945    
     

Following are expressions from author James Lee Burke,

whom we quoted yesterday in Differences.

   "We're faced now with a situation that bears many similarities to the war years in which I grew up. For that reason I think we need to remind ourselves of who we are. In 1945 we were the only country in the world in possession of atomic weapons. 

   "We could have turned the earth into a slave camp with barbed wire and machine gun towers. Instead, through the Marshall Plan, we rebuilt the countries of our enemies and turned them into democracies. No country in human history ever acted with such generosity. 

   "There is no mystery to who people are. They are what they do. We are the same people we were when I was pulling the red wagon with my friend.

    "We don't let fear into our hearts

     We do not turn on our brother or our sister

     We do not shirk sacrifice

     We do not compromise our role as the leader of the free world

      or as the country whose Constitution is a model for emerging democracies. 

   "This is still the greatest country in human history; it was, it is, and it will remain so, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

   "Keep the faith, and grin and walk through the cannon smoke. It drives the bad guys crazy. You're the best people in the world."  

   Views isn't sure Burke is exactly right on all points.

But we add, don't let politicians take us down the

road to ruin in the name of equal outcomes.

Jimmy