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Ken Fogelman is a retired special education teacher with 40 years classroom experience.
At a time of my life when looking back through the years has become a pastime of age, I am sadly struck by the sad, but unwavering observation of how a nation, once proud and increasingly optimistic has slipped into a quagmire previously relegated for disappearing civilizations referenced to in high school history texts.
While retaining pride in one’s heritage and origin, simply being an American was enough. No hyphen was required to modify this title or reduce its impact. We recognized the differences of origins, but heralded the struggles of a single cause.
Worshiping within one’s religion did not preclude the celebration of Christmas or heralding its name. Symbols of its peace and love never seemed to threaten others or their systems of beliefs.
Assistance was given and received as a necessity of fellowship and need, not as a spiral of entitlements sought as an alternative lifestyle to be envied and procured. Pride was taken in rising again to regain our place after being down and self-reliance was the ultimate goal.
Governmental agencies may have been contentious and self-serving, but at the end of the day extremes were modified and middle ground was reached in an effort to serve those, who through the electoral process expected nothing less.
The media generally strove for accuracy and honesty far more often than in today’s culture and usually avoided the pitfalls of bias, opulence, and identifying with those in control. Reporters from all sides of the political spectrum took far greater guardianship of their responsibility to expose those who abused and those who distorted.
Citizens were increasingly held responsible for their actions. Instruments used within the acts were not blamed, unhappy histories within the scope of life were not assigned causality, and political correctness was not a serious consideration of one’s life. Each of us was judged by the paths we traveled and treated accordingly for their consequences.
Educational standards and philosophies were established to address the needs of students and not for the enhancement of specific political ends or the promotion of social experiments gone awry. Those who fell behind were identified and grouped for assistance toward achievement. They were not thrown among those succeeding and allowed to languish for the sake of social expediency.
Failure was an incentive to maintain effort and increase one’s determination to succeed, not used as an excuse to demean the task or reduce the challenge. Standards were maintained, and those who put forth the required level of intensity were usually successful.
Individuals were valued for their contributions in all fields. Those choosing to work the land, repair the machine, and build the house were not considered less successful than those who chose academic venues for the implementation of their chosen vocations.
Pride was taken in raising a child toward the threshold of adulthood. Villages were not assigned responsibility, nor were priorities handed to outside agencies to absolve the responsibilities of parenting. Families were not just legal entities but groups whose essence held the fabric of society together and assumed responsibility for those contained within.
Being a citizen of this country was a privilege. It was our very special accident in history and we frequently and diligently felt the need to massage its mandates. Despite all of its flawed history, its inequities around the seams, and its struggles to survive an increasingly hostile world, we somehow knew that it was the entity whose demeanor would dictate the mandates of the entire globe and help determine the future for untold millions.
That time that I recall has sadly passed, and there seems no resolve in our recent past or indications toward the future to mollify this passage. Perhaps all civilizations have a prescribed schedule to exist, and nations a need to implode. I’m not really certain if these are destined eventualities, although history would seem to side in that direction.
However, regardless of cause, and despite the good intentions of many, the slope remains slippery and its destination incrementally predicts a seemingly downward spiral. This country, which was for so many an island of hope and prayer through so many years and challenges, appears to have decidedly and with a methodical cadence be heading in a direction from which none can return.
