Fifty years ago, in high school, I wrote a “letter to the editor” about beach erosion caused by winter storms in Newport Beach, Calif. The impact on my life was the effect this erosion had on body surfing at my favorite hangout. The current mood of our political landscape is also facing an erosion problem and appears to be mirroring the politics of our country at its birth.
In Ron Chernow’s formidable biography on the life of Alexander Hamilton, he makes an assessment regarding the tone of politics in the earliest times of our fledgling federation at the conclusion of the Revolution. His words ring true today as they did 240 years ago. Chernow states: “The tone of politics had rapidly grown very harsh. Some poison was released into the American political atmosphere that was not put back into the bottle for a generation.”
Hopefully it’s not too late for us to bottle up the poison spreading like a virus into our hearts and lives. In the first century this warning was proclaimed: “And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” Another writer implored his readers, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all people.” Shall we?
