It’s a crazy world out there.
Anyone who has paid the slightest attention to the impeachment process in Washington can probably relate.
Of course, we still have military conflict – in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, other assorted spots scattered across approximately 40 percent of the world in which we still have U.S. troops. Despite promises from President Trump to reduce the United States’ involvement in “endless wars,” not much has happened so far – other than leaving our Syrian Kurdish allies at the mercy of Turkey.
We have hyper-partisan division both in our state and our nation at levels most of us do not remember during our lifetime.
People are sharply divided over a lot of things: crumbling confidence in our nation’s democratic institutions, partly due to government legislative bodies that appear deadlocked, paralyzed by the above-mentioned partisanship; global warming; spiraling national debt; illegal immigration; health care; individual liberties; education; poverty and income gap; the environment; etc., etc.
We have civil unrest – in our own state, across the nation, to the point that the term “civil war” has surfaced, hyperbolically for the most part, thankfully, but there’s no denying that those words aren’t quite as ridiculous as they would have been 20 years ago.
We have rapidly changing social morés that contribute to all this confusion and division: comfortable to some but disturbing to many.
We live in what one observer described earlier this year as “uncertain and worrying times.”
Feeling dizzy yet? Keep reading.
It may not be reassuring, but this isn’t the first time, even in our nation’s history, that we’ve experienced troubling times. Not to state the obvious, but we remind ourselves that world history is full of instances of people behaving in very nasty ways toward each other. Here in our own nation we remember stories of corruption, abuse, wars of questionable justification, hyper-partisan government, and worse.
When our first president, George Washington, stepped down after his second term in office, he delivered an open letter to the public, published in almost all American newspapers in 1792, outlining some of his concerns for the nation.
Though certainly flawed, as we all are, Washington was an extremely intelligent man, with hands-on experience in those matters whereof he wrote. He was also a true leader.
What we should note is that Washington’s contemporaries, Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Hamilton, both had strong disagreements with him, but they respected him enough that they talked him into serving a second term as president when he wanted to step down after his first – a reality to which our current politicians should pay attention: Disagreements in one or more areas should not be the end-all of our leaders’ abilities to work together and respect one another.
The 6,135-word document is way too long to quote fully here, and frankly, the wording is for people who aren’t addicted to cellphones and whose attention spans aren’t limited to 15 seconds.
But Washington offers advice that would be eminently helpful to today’s population. Here are a few outtakes:
– Despite people’s differences in religion, habits, political principles and other areas, unity is critical if we are to have independence and peace at home and abroad, liberty, safety and prosperity. All of that is a result of working together.
– While it’s natural for people to band together with others who share their perspectives, also known as political parties, every government (prior to 1796) has recognized that political parties are an enemy because they seek power over other groups and they tend toward revenge on political opponents. Their disagreements weaken government. The “alternate domination” of one party over another has led to efforts to exact revenge on opponents, which has led to atrocities and “is itself a frightful despotism.”
– The system of checks and balances between the branches of government, spelled out in the U.S. Constitution (which was freshly ratified as Washington stepped down), is crucial in preventing any one person or group from seizing control of the nation. Modification of the powers spelled out in the Constitution should be done through amendments, rather than by force.
– While the United States should maintain a policy of good faith and justice toward all nations, Americans as a whole should avoid long-term friendly relations or rivalries with any nation, because such would only cloud foreign policy.
The U.S. should take advantage of its isolation in the world, and avoid the long-term relationships with other countries and entanglements in foreign affairs that Washington saw amongst the European nations. Temporary alliances in the face of extreme circumstances may be necessary, but should be honored and not extended.
– Free trade with all nations is something to be pursued. Trade links should be established naturally, with little involvement by the government other than to keep things stable, defend the rights of American merchants and ensure conventional rules of trade.
Does any of this sound familiar – at least in a negative sense? We’ve strayed a long way, on just about every point.
During Christmas season, there seems to be an ever-decreasing general recognition of the original reason for the holiday, the birth of Jesus Christ, of whom one of the popular carols we sing states: “Light and life to all he brings, risen with healing in his wings.”
Here’s one more point Washington makes, perhaps the most important: “Cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and Morality enjoin (instruct or urge) this conduct; and can it be, that good policy does not equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great Nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence.
“Who can doubt, that, in the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages, which might be lost by a steady adherence to it? Can it be, that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity (happiness) of a Nation with its Virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas! is it rendered impossible by its vices?”
In other words, Washington’s (and many other eminent leaders in world and our nation’s history) have believed that peace and happiness stem from adherence to virtuous principles. If God is the Author of virtue, as the Bible states in so many words, it would stand to reason that the true way to find peace and happiness in our nation is to pay greater attention to what’s in its pages – like they did.
That was George Washington’s standard. Despite all the hypocrisy and human frailty that have infected our nation’s historic adherence to that standard, in his mind we would do well to return to it, instead of our own big, new ideas.
Peace and happiness to you. Merry Christmas!