Nation is at a crossroads
What choices will you make?
You may not agree with this pessimistic sounding observation, but I believe America stands at the intersection of hope and despair. Before you think this is a forecast of imminent disaster, please recognize there is not a date noted in that concern. It is, however, that “clear and present danger” looming somewhere in the region of our existence that we prefer to ignore.
There are several areas of our lives that we could consider as being potentially in that position of a personal, national or even international disaster. International concerns can be beyond our individual scope of change, but we can contribute to some small degree if we think about global warming, pollution of our drinking water and affecting the natural balance of nature by destroying our environment. We might not have a major impact but we can recycle products, conserve water and be aware of our surroundings when we are enjoying life.
The individual crossroads are certainly there for our choices, but when I read about the personal debt of individuals, many of the choices have been made and now how we handle them confronts us. Having four grandchildren in college, or recently graduating, I hear the plague of student loan debt and the credit card balances. The individual cost of education has increased to the extent some sort of financial help is needed in most American households today unless the parents planned for their children’s post high school education. We make decisions on moral issues that can lead to serious consequences for us and our families if we become careless and forget we live in a society where we can easily affect others such as driving while trying to send a text message, or misuse of social media. These can be considered at many levels of involvement from our decision to vote or what church we attend. However, they are basic day-to-day choices which we make that affect family and personal issues that frequently reflect priorities taught at home and passed down from one generation to another and are so personal we chose to ignore them as a crossroad decision.
But the thing that seems to be a major threat to our nation, is where we are as a country and where we go from here. Few if any people would argue that America has come from being one of the newest major societies in the world to being seen as an international super power. That includes the personal freedom to choose a spiritual belief all the way up to our nation having the world’s most powerful military resources. Where we go from here, what path we (the nation) choose and when we come to grips with our success and the responsibilities to the individual and the world, is the point in question.
The individual we choose to lead us as a nation, at this point in the life of our relatively new country, will determine our role in the world — financially, morally, militarily and spiritually. Can we take our eyes off of the promise of a lottery prize and entertainment activities long enough to consider how the little decisions in our lives can add up to bigger choices for America?
Donald Trump continues to use social media to stay in the media spotlight. We can think of his administration style as “rule of thumb,” but there is no question his style of management is different. The revolving leadership door at his White House has been unique, with success or failure in the eye of the beholder.
My question for those taking time to read this — if you voted for him before — would you support him a second term? Has he succeeded in accomplishing what you desired or does he have additional work to do in Washington? We don’t have to answer that question today, but the crossroads decision for us as individuals is in the making now. It is in what we read, what we hear and how we respond to all the “stuff” in the air.
Can any of the 20 Democratic would-be nominees rise to the status of a Roosevelt in our struggle to stay on top of the nuclear (military) development in the world? None that I have seen on television so far sounds like the statesmanship of the Republican Ronald Reagan who went from a soap spokesman to telling Kruschev to “tear down that wall.” Will we recognize a leader if he, or she, steps forward?
Who should be America’s leader will be determined months from now but our choices, or priorities we give to our preparation for input into that decision may be one of the most important in this century. It should not be minimized as so many politicians would seem to feel. Political party affiliation will probably be an influence for most of us, but we can look locally and see how easily we can be swayed into accepting a “party-aligned” candidate when a new unaffiliated voice might be more objective.
America will be challenged on numerous fronts — financial, politically, morally, etc. — in the coming years and it is my prayerful desire that GOD will give us individual, as well as national, wisdom in selecting the one to face the choices that must be made.