THE CHALLENGE

Old things, lovingly and carefully restored, are a joy to behold, a real treasure.

There is nothing finer than an old this or that which has been…upgraded. That is, it works and works well, at least as well or better than it did when it was new.
A cabin Up North; a fine restaurant; a church wedding; a well-broken in automobile; traditions, eagerly anticipated and lovingly practiced, time after time, year after year.

Traditions,…The passing down of elements of a culture from generation to generation, especially by oral communication…; A mode of thought or behavior followed by a people continuously from generation to generation; a custom or usage…; A set of such customs and usages viewed as a coherent body of precedents influencing the present…, are especially to be valued.

Anniversaries, holidays and birthdays fill our appointment calendars and give joy and meaning to our lives.

And as it is with our individual lives, so it is with the ‘life’ of a people, of a nation.

Traditions help us to know what we are and what we have been.
Traditions help us through the difficult times and help us to celebrate the good times.
Traditions give us strength, even when we no longer really understand them.

They suggest that our lives have meaning, that we have inherited a legacy and that we are helping to pass on that legacy.
We may modify and add nuances, but we are in a line of succession.

And so it is with nations. A nation is like a collective person. It is conceived and born, often with a certain amount of suffering and joy. It grows and matures. It wins and loses. It rejoices and grieves.
Those nations that have traditions; a sense of the meaning of what they are doing, are nations that will most willingly bear the burdens which life imposes.

That is why it is so important to remember and to honor our personal and national traditions.
We are going to face successes and failures and our traditions will help us deal with both.

The leaders of our families and of our communities and of our nation will most deserve our thanks if they do all that is humanly possible to promote and to preserve the best of our American traditions.

It should go without saying that the promotion and preservation of the best of our traditions implicitly requires the suppression of the worst.

Perhaps this is the greatest challenge for the new Administration just elected to Office.

Perhaps this is the greatest challenge for all who are in positions of leadership in our nation.

Revisionism is in the air. Change is the ‘mantra’ mouthed mindlessly by ecstatic adulators.

Many of the old ways are examined, found wanting, and discarded. Many once regarded as common sense, truisms taken for granted; are now derided as wrong, prejudicial, and unhelpful.

Important past errors are ignored, never known about, or declared to be irrelevant.

Courtesies, practices observed and expected by generations of Americans are ridiculed.

Again, a people who have no traditions have no past.

And a people without a past are like children.