Contributed by Doug Ferguson
Sadness and gratitude are two emotions I’ve intensely been feeling lately. Gratitude for having had the privilege (there’s that nasty word again!) of living in five distinct regions of the United States in my lifetime, and, in each one lived and seen what wonderful opportunities existed for a full life that were present in each. Sadness to see this land of freedom and promise in which I was born disappearing before our very eyes, most likely forever, or at least in its present form.
I’ve previously written about this sad process hoping that enough people see it for what it is, thus to offer resistance to what is happening. No more. Either people see it or they ignore it. It’s staring them in the face. Esteemed historian and scholar Victor Davis Hanson’s most recent opinion piece in “American Greatness” titled “The Cruel Progressive Creed Undoing Civilization” probably does the best job of stating this plight of Western Civilization today, America being the focal point of the huge changes underway. You should read it.
His first paragraph sets the tone for the rest of his very pointed and unsettling article:
“Debt is suffocating us. Our currency is on its way to being Lebanonized. Most major American cities are broke, dirty, unsafe, and run by either corrupt incumbents, neo-Marxists, or both. The law is optional, and applied asymmetrically on the basis of race and ideology. The past is found guilty by the laws of the present and so it is being undone.”
He then talks about the boarder crisis and our military decline:
“------There is no U.S. border; it is an abstract construct that millions will illegally cross in the next few years, ostensibly because they will become future soldiers in the progressive wars for America to come. The idea of merit that built America is a dirty word, replaced by medieval tribalism of hiring and promotion by superficial appearance.
In just five months, Joe Biden created a desert and called it progress.”
After reviewing the range of actions and events in almost every aspect of our culture, he ends with the following:
“The new progressivism is not the old Democratic Party, or even 1960s’ liberalism. It is a cruel creed, a faith-based ideology that allows no apostasies. Progressivism envisions humanity as a marbleized abstraction, not incarnate humans. If need be, it will alter language, change names, cancel people, erase events, and destroy elements of existing civilization. It stereotypes both adherents and opponents as either useful or disposable. And the carnage it wreaks on the masses is always acceptable damage for these terrifying visions of the anointed.”
I completely share his pessimism about the future and will not be writing again to convince others of this, but will be documenting and celebrating the life I have had for future generations to read about. At the same time, I mourn the sadness of it not being there for my descendants and the youth of our country.
In that spirit I offer the following verses:
Ode to My Native Land
I am an American native son, My forebearers came here for freedom and opportunity,
My seed was planted here.
My Childhood showed me how to stick up for myself,
It also taught me to how to fail, then succeed with others and learn life’s wonders..
In my teenage years, I learned how rules and work get results,
But yet how life still could be fun.
As a younger man I learned important work skills,
And gloried in being needed and free.
As a peacetime soldier, I learned to respect,
And honor those who had been in combat and fought for me.
As a worker I found the satisfaction
Of leaving something better than it was before.
As a young adult, I had the freedom to marry,
Regardless of my parent’s wisdom or my lack thereof.
As a Father, I learned to be a parent, a teacher, and mentor,
Not always the best, but still loved.
As a Man, my close friends were of different races and religions.
As a grownup I had complete freedom to make mistakes,
And managed to make some big ones!
In midlife I learned that in America, one can always
Start over, despite their mistakes, if one is honest and owns up to them.
As a Senior, I have learned true love, peace, compassion and
To have gratitude for all these life lessons.
In America, my beloved native free land,
During my lifetime all these things were possible.
So long America! It’s been good t’know ya!
Doug Ferguson is a retired engineer living in Palmer, Alaska who has had a life-long interest in science, math, earth sciences, astronomy, history and of course, human behavior.