When Did America Become Great?

There are many possible answers to that question.

I offer August 14, 1941 as the candidate for when we became great. That was the day President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill met to sign the Atlantic Charter. The Atlantic Charter laid the firmest foundation for our system of alliances that won World War II. We built our structure of international security and prosperity on that foundation.

President Trump is demolishing that foundation.

Eternal Father, Strong To Save, Whose Arm Hath Bound The Restless Wave

The last few days, I have been thinking about the late George Herbert Walker Bush, an honorable man who served his country well.

He was a navy man.  He had just turned eighteen when he enlisted.

He went into harm's way.

He flew aircraft off of aircraft carriers, and was nineteen years old when he was shot down over Chichi Jima in Japan's Bonin Islands.

He could have perished in the sea near Chichi Jima at the age of nineteen. But he survived to serve his country in many capacities until his death at the age of ninety-four.

He exhibited the modesty so characteristic of his generation.

He did not boast. He did not brag. He was not a bully.

A good model to follow.

Many commentators marvel at George Bush's youth at the time he enlisted. As I think back to that time in my own life, I realize I had turned seventeen four months before I entered the navy. So I don't see Bush as having been all that young.

It was a different time.