Dear Editor:

My mother remembers the day Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. World War II began and the country united against fascism in the defense of democracy.

Americans sacrificed for the war effort. We were drawn together as soldiers, in service organizations, rationing, victory gardens, sacrificing and staying informed as we worked toward victory.

“We all went to the Red Cross to roll bandages.” she told me. When “the boys came home,” an era of prosperity and fellowship followed. The country was victorious and the world was at peace.

When President John F. Kennedy said, “We will put a man on the moon and return him safely to the earth,” national pride and enthusiasm swelled. College enrollment in science and math soared. The United States landed men on the moon six times, an amazing achievement even to this day. (Photographs of the landing sites with the astronauts footprints are on NASA’s website.) From that victory during the Cold War, our ingenuity and talent opened an era of grand technological progress.

Now, we face wars on two fronts: COVID-19 and climate change. In the 1980s, scientists discovered that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were depleting our protective ozone layer. The U.S. and leading industrial countries acted quickly. Harmful chemicals were identified and removed from ozone-destroying products. Now the ozone layer is recovering. Meanwhile the heat trapping properties of carbon dioxide and methane are largely being ignored or denied. Consequently we are allowing the planet to spin off into human-caused climate chaos. 

Our Constitution and laws are tried and true. Our institutions are sound. Our research facilities and economists are the best in the world. Let us relax political attitudes, take a look at our situation like any pioneer would and face realities. Otherwise we are letting our chance for a bright and healthy future pass us by.

Rather than facing off, wouldn’t it be more patriotic to remember the times we came together, the manners we learned at home and the morality and fellowship we learned in church? Together we can overcome these threats.

It’s hard to watch the news with my mother. She has lived through hard times and good, and doesn’t understand why we are arguing so much. I look at her and worry that we are losing our status as “the shining city on the hill,” as Ronald Reagan put it. If there was ever a time to turn swords to plowshares, this is it.

Sincerely,

Geoff Baumann

Powell