Bright Future

Every year, the day before Thanksgiving, the Wall Street Journal publishes an article titled “And the Fair Land”. Following is an excerpt from the article:

“at home they see young arrayed against old, black against white, neighbor against neighbor…they see that the cities and countryside are in need of repair, yet find themselves threatened by scarcities of the resources that sustain their way of life.”

It is easy to find challenges in our country today. There is much to be concerned about in politics, economics, education, and civics. But what is right in our country exceeds what is wrong with it. I believe the solutions to today’s challenges are the same as the solutions when the article was first written in 1961.

“We can all remind ourselves that the richness of this country was not born in the resources of the earth, though they be plentiful, but in the men that took its measure. We can remind ourselves that for all our social discord we yet remain the longest enduring society of free men governing themselves without benefit of kings or dictators. Being so, we are the marvel and the mystery of the world, for that enduring liberty is no less a blessing than the abundance of the earth.”

The resilience of a people that value liberty combined with the natural resources and financial capital of the people and institutions of this great country are reason for hope to exceed despair. For optimism to surpass discouragement. For the future to be even brighter than our past.