A lot of medical emergencies hit my family in the Fourth Quarter of 2007, and I’m glad to be free of the whole year now. Even the final lingering cough I have is reassuring because it’s so much better now than it was three weeks ago when it was at its worst.
It’s clear that this upcoming year is going to be extraordinary. Already the presidential campaign is crazy, promising a lot more entertainment and suspense than we usually have in an election year. It’s fascinating to watch identity politics and political correctness turning back against Democrats, and it’s becoming all too clear that we are going to find out a lot about ourselves and our conservative beliefs as we find our way through the burgeoning labyrinth of Republican primary and caucus pathfinding.
The 21st Century was born in the contradictions of a year in which the tried-and-true gave way to a scary uncertainty. When I went to sleep on the evening of the day I voted for a president, for the first time in my life I didn’t know the outcome of that vote when I finally closed my eyes. When I woke up the next morning and turned on the television I was staggered to see that there was still no definitive outcome. As the day progressed it became perfectly clear that there would not be an answer for many days, even weeks. I felt totally disoriented and even angry that something I trusted as an absolute had suddenly fallen apart.
Every year since then has been evidence of a growing schism with the past. This year especially, with the election of a new president, we will be electing a future that will carry within it the seeds of a profound change in the human condition. With the miracles of science, technology, genetics, computers, communication—tools of potential unlike any mankind has ever known—we will either use our strengths to create wonders or we will be destroyed as our enemies use our weaknesses against us. A century from now our children’s children’s children will look back at us with the deepest gratitude or in contempt and hatred, and they will look out at their own future with a glowing optimism or a dark despair.
The decisions that will be made this year, the arguments propounded and those torn apart, the paths chosen and those left barricaded or simply unexplored, the way the ground is prepared and the types of seeds that are finally planted, will determine the lives and deaths of countless hundreds of millions of people now and to come. The United States of America is Western Civilization’s Last Best Hope, and we Americans are the ones who will determine its future course.
It would be nice if we managed to get it right.
Trackposted to Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Mark My Words, Rosemary's Thoughts, Adam's Blog, Right Truth, Big Dog's Weblog, Leaning Straight Up, Conservative Cat, Adeline and Hazel, third world county, Allie is Wired, DragonLady's World, The World According to Carl, Pirate's Cove, Blue Star Chronicles, Celebrity Smack, The Pink Flamingo, Right Voices, The Yankee Sailor, and CatSynth.com, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
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