The Long View

By W. F. Twyman, Jr.

It is too late when one hears the bullet. Destiny will have its way with you. Yesterday, my Free Black Thought podcast co-host Michael Bowen wrote we dodged a bullet as a country. In good faith, Michael, I disagree. No one dodged a bullet. A man turned his head ever so. A 5 mile per hour wind nudged a projectile over the course of 140 yards two inches off course. Providence intervened.

Such is the stuff of history and legend.

A young man headed for battle in the Wilderness. Ambitious to earn his stripes as aide-de-camp under Major General Edward Braddock, the young man was driven by a desire to serve his country. The year was 1755. No knew the man’s name, all of 22 years old. Of course, his Virginia family and neighbors cared about the young man but few others, although Major General Braddock saw promise in the inexperienced Virginian.

When battle came for the young man, he was seized with dysentery and weakened by his illness and bloodletting by doctors. Nonetheless, the young man rode into an ambush strapped to his horse. Braddock saw the impending doom of the moment. He ordered the young man to dash into battle, send another party up an exposed hill and retrieve two cannon.

That young man strove into the gun fire with destiny. Tall as all get out and an easy target for the French and Indian soldiers, his horse dropped as the young man heard the shot. The young man grabbed another horse and returned to battle. His second horse dropped dead as the young man heard the gunshot. He grabbed a horse from a dead soldier. Another shot heard, this time though his hat. The young man did not flinch. Another shot heard, this time through his uniform. The young man did not waver. Another shot heard, this time either through his hat or his uniform. The young man was now the living embodiment of courage. A fourth shot heard on the battlefield, this time another shot through his uniform.

No bullet out of many harmed the young man.

The Indian soldiers felt this young man was protected by a higher spirit. A young doctor witnessed the incredible destiny of the man that day: His duty and station exposed him to every danger. Nothing but the superintending care of Providence could have saved him from the fate of all around him.”

So many British officers were killed or wounded that the young man “was the only person then left to distribute the general’s orders.”

Once upon a time in the Wilderness, no one knew the young man’s name. The entire world knows this young man’s name today. The 22-year-old Virginian left standing was George Washington.

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Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop. ... Like anybody, I would like to live - a long life... But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. So I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord! — Dr. Martin Luther King’s Last Speech, April 3, 1968

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I am sickened by these times. As an American native to Virginia, I take no comfort in senseless polarization and division. These are terrible times and yet I continue to have faith in the coming of a better time. Immense inner strength will get us to the other side of rancor and turmoil. Maybe, we should crave unity and harmony over disunity and disharmony as a people.

I take comfort in the long view. As Americans, we cycle through the generations. Every period of peace and prosperity is followed by war and inflation/depression. The American Revolution was not a united time. One-third of colonists were patriots who supported the Revolution. But at the same time, one-third of colonists were loyalists to the British crown. Families were split down the middle. I believe a son of patriot Ben Franklin was a Governor of New Jersey and loyal to the British. William Franklin Can you imagine the acrimony and hard feelings within the Franklin family about the Revolution? And the remaining one-third of colonists were apathetic about the whole Declaration of Independence drama.

And yet times of great division and strife were followed by An Era of Good Feeling. People tired of being at one another’s throats due to politics. There is more to life than politics. 1815 - 1825 was a time when people disagreed without being disagreeable. 1765 - 1783 was the time of the American Revolution and maximum strife on colonial soil. Notice how strife was followed within 32 years by a different national mood.

Nothing is permanent in our American mood.

The ultimate irreconcilable differences of the Civil War (1861 - 1865) were followed by the more constructive and positive mood of Reconstruction (1865 - 1877) and the Gilded Age (late 1870s - late 1890s). Once again, the pattern is the same. Intense anger and tension is followed by reconciliation and good times. America was in a very different place from the Civil War by 1895. Doesn’t mean there wasn’t backtracking on race but there has always been more to the American story than race alone.

Consider the war footing of American society in World War II (1939 - 1945) which was followed by the tranquil times of the 1950s. All praise to President Dwight E. Eisenhower who, like his distant predecessor George Washington, was first in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen. I Like Ike was more than a slogan. It was the next cycle in the American mood.

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Conclusion: When I was a little kid, I lived through the assassination of Robert Kennedy and Dr. King. I remember feeling that anyone who cared about public service was fated to die. It took a long, long time for those fears to melt away over a life time. I do not care about partisan politics. I care about the coming of a better time. We are approaching rock bottom in our ability to see ourselves in others. And to remain committed to the proposition that our destiny is to create a more perfect Union as countrymen.

The aim has never been perfection. The horizon has always been becoming. And as we remember who we are as Americans, let us give us thanks for the hand of providence. The same providence that saw destiny in Washington and Lincoln and Eisenhower counsels us that this too — these times of irreconciled differences — will pass. Sometimes history blows in softly as a 5 mile per hour wind, the turn of a head, a young soldier in the Wilderness who heard the shots and did not die.

One day, this decade of the 2020s will be in the rear view mirror as the young born in the 2030s and 2040s grow weary of strife at home and in the public square.

May we all know that by the 2050s, America will return to a New Era of Good Feeling, a New Reconstruction, a Golden Age in Culture and Consciousness. What is old will be new again.

The Last Casualty of the Civil War