A new year looking back at trying times

A couple of thoughts as we end the year: The more things change, the more they stay the same; if people and governments never learn anything from history, it will be repeated.

Indeed, this seems to be the case.

Borrowing from what I wrote in 1998, it’s difficult to get into the spirit of the season of “peace and goodwill” when all the world is in turmoil. With bombs falling in Iraq, the future of America seems to be called into question. In 1998, it was the Clinton ‘affairs” (pun intended). Today, it’s the president’s approval ratings plummeting, because of negative press over the war on terrorism.

Can this country survive these uncertain times, I asked, when America seemingly has lost its once-strong will to protect itself and all it stands for? When it seems to have lost its sense of pride and its dogged determination to do what is right?

It’s particularly unsettling as Hollywood types and the media join the French and Germans and other Europeans in blaming those who are trying to defend our freedom and protect our country for future generations. They want terrorists to be given the rights of American citizens. They accuse the president of advocating “spying” on citizens. Don’t I recall that some of the terrorist sympathizers actually were or had become American citizens?

Meanwhile, a brutal dictator accuses the Americans of abuse and that makes headlines, whereas, the mass graves uncovered in Iraq were all but overlooked in the major media. These are trying times for America and for the world.

But, because this is the season for hope and good cheer, we will continue to have faith in ourselves, our country, and in the future.

We pray that the turmoil that presently surrounds us will not be allowed to consume our confidence, and will lead us, instead, to a better and brighter future for ourselves and our posterity.