Letters from Linden
by JACK LINDEN
It looks like the Republican Party is trying to go back to something that never was. They are thinking that if we only returned to the “good ole” days, everything would be just lovely. Their idea of the world and the United States never was and never will be. I am trying to figure out what they mean by “returning to our basic principles and taking our country back.”
Our minds allow us to erase memories of long ago. Another thing that the brain lets us do is to romanticize the past. Too many people have a Norman Rockwell memory of our past, of our country and of our town. You know ... the friendly butcher wiping his hands on his apron after he has given the lady her package of meat. There is the clean cut American boy in his scout uniform proudly looking at his just achieved badge. That is an artist’s depiction of way things should have been but never were. We may think that is the way it was, but we can’t go back to something that wasn’t.
Too many people today think our government is too big. That may be so, but we need to think of where we are today and what it takes to govern our people. We are in a time of “instant-instant,” where everything must be done now, not in the future. We send instant messages, no longer willing to get up from our chairs to speak to the person two cubicles away. Chemistry has added years to our life expectancy and we demand instant cures for any minor ailment or wound. One can go on and on about how life has changed.But the most important thing is to remember just that – it has changed.
I think the national political scene has also filtered down to the local scene. We all have an image of our own little town. I grew up in a town that had about 400 souls in it. I heard the same thing then that I hear a lot of folks saying today – about the old houses down the street and how much fun they were; that old high school building was good enough for all these years and look how successful some of our graduates have been; that there is no need for a swimming pool or for a new library – the old one is good enough. Isn’t it nice that we still know about everyone in town? These are just a few of the ways that people want to go back.
Unfortunately, small towns like the one in which I was reared tend to stay that way as long as the people who reside there keep looking backwards. Yes, keeping the old fire station and the volunteers is fine. We don’t need a new library because there are enough books there and besides, there is the modern technology.People will want to come and see our old houses and that courthouse with all the bric-a-brac. They will like the history of our town. Yes, the downtown area is sort of dead but someday, someone will fill those empty buildings. We will have it all back like it used to be.
It won’t be what it used to be, ever. The town will just keep getting older and they will wonder why the young people don’t stay in town anymore. My home town is still there but there are no young people. The old high school is now the city hall and the young people go to the new high school several miles away.
Just as small towns need to look to the future, so must our leaders at the national level. As long as both want to stay the same or try to recreate what never was, we will stagnate. No matter what we think, we can’t go back. We will live in a myth because it is simply that – a myth.
