Ramblings

It was 1990 when the epic Ken Burns documentary on the Civil War aired on PBS. I saw a lot of it, but certainly not all 11 hours. One of the featured commentators was Shelby Foote, a Mississippi born novelist and historian. Like many others, I was charmed by his drawl, erudition and his quirk of speaking as if the was was still going on. Twenty-seven years later, and 2 years after Foote's death, I'm finally getting around to reading his trilogy The Civil War: A Narrative.
As frustrated as I am by the state of the world and the spewing of venom that passes for political debate today, Foote's work is helping me to keep things in perspective. Then, as now, warring factions each claim God to be their ally and accuse the other of doing the work of the devil. Then, as now, politicians accuse each other of being in the pockets of "special interests" and being out of touch with the will of the people and/or reality and/or common sense.
Our nation survived the Civil War, although we were surely changed by it. We were no longer a "union" voluntarily entered into by the "willing states". We got rid of slavery and created a powerful nation, but the concept of state sovereignty largely went out the window.
I am convinced we will overcome our current troubles, although, again, we will be changed. The jury is still out on what will become of "habeas corpus", protection against unreasonable searches and the right to a speedy trial by a jury of ones peers. There's no question were becoming a little less free. Maybe the idealistic rights and protections in our constitution can't stand up to suicide bombers, saturday night specials, sexual predators, weapons of mass destruction and, of course unrestrained campaign spending.