By Amy Clark
Guest Columnist
As a history buff, I love to read about people who lived in the past, especially ones whose accomplishments lived beyond their lifetimes and contributed to the advantages we now take for granted which nevertheless enhance the ease we enjoy.
During the previous century—the 20th—that of my grandparents’ generation, while my parents grew up and when I was young, it was acknowledged that Freedom from Fear is the greatest gift we could share, as a nation. It meant freedom from fear of the spread of fascism and the effects of racial prejudice. Great sacrifices were made by a number of Americans in order to make progress on the elimination of fascist tendencies and racist attitudes. This part of our history consists of the evidence, available for any of us to examine, provided by the facts of events of which the physical traces and the artifacts humans generated when they witnessed and endured those events still leave their mark for us to contemplate, even now. Facts of events in the past created and left physical effects on our environment and on humanity. In that way, anyone who wants to refute those facts can be challenged to explain what caused their lasting effects to exist into the present times we are living in.
I’m thinking of, for example, the organized extermination of whole European Jewish national populations, during what we now call the Holocaust. I’m also thinking of the destruction of what was formerly the Berlin Wall impenetrably dividing West and East Berlin for decades. These 20-century events we recall, most of us now accept as facts. Of course, it is said, “Hindsight is 20-20.”
What about while events are in process?
It is also been said that a society remains stable only as long as facts are mutually believed. Agreed upon facts facilitate a stable society in the same way a three-legged stool can support one’s weight, as long as each leg is equally strong.
That brings me to historical facts I read about in the book by military historian, Victor Davis Hanson, titled, The End of Everything.
He notes, “Rome and Carthage were politically similar. Each maintained a careful republican balance between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of power within a single government. But that did not prevent contention and rivalry between them.”
What works survives even through catastrophic destruction, such as Rome’s razing of their competitor Carthage’s civilization, Hanson seems to infer. I am amazed that what evolved as the democratic political system we trust to keep our modern nation stable originated so much earlier in time. And that is a true understatement of fact!
What threatens our civilization is not really a competitor because everywhere we turn we do not find another country that seeks to overrun and erase us, as Rome did Carthage. In all directions we confront the effects of the undeniable fact that modern communication technology has transformed our planet into a “global village” that is entirely interdependent.
The greatest conspiracy that has been recently forced upon us is the “Myth of Scarcity,” warning us we must scramble to secure the wealth of the earth within our own nation before it is too late— as if prosperity were a zero sum game.
But, in reality, it is not. The prosperity of other nations doesn’t remove any of our opportunities for self-improvement; it only helps us, as in: “An increasing tide raises all boats.”
The real danger that threatens to shake our nation’s historic foundation in the balance of power between three branches of government are insidious false conspiracies being promoted as facts.
The core of each of these false conspiracies is a lie not supported by facts. Each conspiracy is dressed up or disguised fear mongering. A wolf in sheep’s clothing, in other words.
The false conspiracy that a wave of criminal aliens have infiltrated our country requires we witness our government weaponized against our most recent neighbors.
Immigrants in the legal process toward permission to settle and work in America are snatched away from jobs that support them and their law-abiding families and incarcerated. The false conspiracy, that illegal aliens have actually already swarmed polling places and cast votes that have determined the outcome of state, federal and local elections, requires us to witness all local and state election boards in America being pressured to vomit up all the information they use to conduct the kind of legal, fair, peaceful and democratic elections they have always conducted and that we are rightly exceedingly proud of. The kind of elections many, many people around the world envy and sadly, must still wait for.
What has all this demonization of immigrants accomplished?
It has reduced productivity in those industries that rely on physical labor by people who do not speak English well who will work for wages lower than most of us would accept: hotel hospitality, food service, farm work, landscaping, cleaning offices, schools and hospitals, solid waste sanitation, construction and transportation, for example.
But where would we be without them?
False conspiracies will fade away as we reliably verify readily available facts that we do not fear to publicly declare and honor. A government with distinct, independent branches that share, in equal balance—rather than compete for power—has survived the test of time which has thrown many challenges in its way. It belongs to us … for now.
Democracy, and the three strong legs it requires to thrive, still stands. We need to defend it this time, not with weapons and blood, but with humility, wisdom, knowledge of history, and faith in our ability to recognize, accept and agree upon facts.
