Have you ever known peace?

America

I listened with considerable fascination to a speech delivered by a thirteen year old Boy Scout on Patriot's Day 2015. He lamented that he had never known peace in his short life. He was, after all, born following the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, and the War on Terror, he reminded us, has raged continuously since then. Hadn't he heard? President Obama declared it done and won.

In any event, the Boy Scout accomplished his task. Well, at least with me, he succeeded. He got me to thinking. Have I ever known peace? Have you?

I was born during 1943, at the height of World War II. Of course I was too young to know or appreciate either that war or the brief illusion of peace that followed.

I was aware of the war in Korea. I played war games as those a mere decade older were actually fighting it.

Then there was the Cold War. Surely, no one would designate that as a time of peace. Although hostilities existed in a surreal universe of diplomacy, weapons were constantly pointed and threats hurled daily while surrogates died in very real, un-cold battles. Of course I was fully aware of it. My classmates and I watched films instructing us to duck and cover at the flash of a bright light. Neither the Doctrine of Containment nor Detente created peace. They merely held the war over our heads in suspended animation until the Cuban Missile Crisis. That's when those with their heads in the sand received a quick kick in their behinds and even they had to acknowledge that peace was illusory.

The Cold War came home to America with a vengeance during the period of the War in Vietnam. Unfortunately, that was my war and I remember it well. The nation's streets and campuses seethed with unrest against those who fought against the Communists. The Communists had won the culture war in America and was flexing its muscle.

The War on Terror followed after the one brief period of peace that we enjoyed. Reagan's peace. In those few moments our hearts beat gladly as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics collapsed and America was left alone on the list of the World's Super Powers. Some even ventured to dub it the Pax Americana. 

Sadly there are those who will deny the truth of my last paragraph. They will respond with ideological spleen to disclaim it. I wonder why. Is peace so abhorrent to them? It must be. They are the ones who today espouse the changing of America. To them I offer congratulations. They have succeeded. They have taken control of the schools and children, such as the young Boy Scout who inspired this posting, are being taught a perverted vision of America's past. The government has grown cancer-like until it no longer resembles the blueprint found in the Constitution. The legislators have become irrelevant stooges of progressive causes. The President has become the idol of a cult of personality. The Court elevates Freedom from Responsibility to the detriment of all other freedoms.

Sadly there can be no peace in America while the ideological battle rages. Indeed, it has reignited other battles long dead. Interracial strife is rising. Political divisions now cast verbal brickbats at each other. Refugees are pouring into Europe as well as America, and many fear that there are terrorists among them. Compromise, which once bridged these abysses, is illusory. Soon the brickbats will be replaced by bullets. Indeed, it has already begun in some quarters. Citizens are arming themselves in record numbers and the government is arming bureaucrats while disarming the nation's military.

God help America...