Great Again

Memory can be crazy

I would love to be great again too. But, in all honesty, I never really was.

Sure, maybe captain of the football and basketball teams. We had some great victories back then. We should have won it all. But we didn’t.

Now I’m old. It is so tempting to think of those back-then times as glorious. I know in my heart they were troubled. I was troubled. But I survived.

So when I see a “Make America Great Again” hat on a guy my age, I want to ask the old guy to sit down with me and have a beer. Tell me about when America was great. Tell me when your life was great. Maybe we have some things in common.

My introspective nature has kept me from this. I haven’t overcome that, though I wish I could. But I can imagine, here in words, shared. Maybe this is the best I can do.

So just when was America great? Tell me. What are you drinking?

But better, tell me when you were great. We’ll laugh about it.

Maybe you think it was just after the Revolution. When New Englanders refused to pay the Whiskey Tax and their rebellion was brought down by the strong hand of President Washington. Or maybe America’s greatness was more recent, in the 1950’s after the end of WWII. Industry was booming, Europe and Russia were in tatters, women had babies and we built things. Great things. We even funded rebuilding bombed out Europe. We built the Interstate Highway system. We built freezers and washing machines and dishwashers.

Until the Japanese and Germans built better ones.

We have a Bosch dishwasher that’s 25 years old and running strong. Quieter than the Kenmore we replaced and more efficient.

What is it that makes us great?

I could tell you about the touchdowns, the shots I made. And you could tell me of yours. When you won the game at the last second. I would drink to that.

But I would ask you, is that greatness? Winning a game?

It’s bigger, I think.

Maybe you think we need to be great again like back in the late 1800’s, and on into the new century. After the railroads and westward expansion. Maybe we were great then.

Should we talk about the displacement of native Americans? Maybe not.

That was a time of incredible immigration. They powered our need for cheap labor.

But then labor tried to organize. The Wobblies. It got difficult.

But we kept on.

Like after high school when we were sports stars. Weren’t we great then? Is that what we want to go back to? You and me, old guys with bad knees. How’s that new hip you got?

Maybe this old romantic image we have of our past can be a trap. Sometimes we should just remember, but not make that memory into something great.

Take a step back.

We are all just humans here. There’s the plants and animals, but we’ll keep them out of the slogans for now. That’s for another round.

Can we, you, and me, just agree for now that we are just miserable, noble, struggling fellow humans? Maybe that’s a starting point.

If we can just agree on that, then can we ask, where in the hell should we be heading?

That’s the question.

Maybe you have a different history you want to extoll.

Maybe you have a different heroic story to tell.

I’m all ears. I’ll buy the next round.

Sooner or later, we’re going to have to start talking about just where we want to go. For our children, and in my and your case grandchildren. And indeed, generations beyond them.

Can we be great?

Maybe we weren’t.

But we could be for them.