I'm posting a column I recently wrote on the upcoming presidential election.
I've been avoiding political discourse, but the historian in me is getting anxious and I felt I needed to remind people we are living in historical times. So here it is.
An Election for the Ages
By T. R. Shaw Jr.
The upcoming presidential election is certain to be
a watershed in American history. It will
likely go down as the most dirty, divisive and ugliest campaigns of our
time. It’s a difficult time where
neither choice of candidates is truly palatable to the average American. As one commentator said over the weekend, we
have a choice between a buffoon and a criminal.
It’s hard to disagree with that assessment.
Although I’m not a parent, the thought occurred to me, “What should we be telling our children about this today?”
If I was a history professor, “What would I be
telling my students today?”
After thinking about that, I decided
we should be telling our youth to become great observers.
As an historian, I’d urge our youth to take in everything
they can over the next several months because you are walking through and
living in real-time history today. This
era, no matter the outcome, will be studied, analyzed and rewritten far into
the future. We should be telling our
youth to soak it all in as future generations will look back in amazement of
what we are going through and dealing with.
We are truly living in an episode of “You are There!”
This election also offers true
teachable moments where we can discuss ethics, integrity and morality with
living examples of good and bad characters and institutions.
So, instead of sticking our collective heads in the sand and refusing to deal with the harsh realities, we should be relishing this time as a pivotal moment in our lifetimes. If you are of a certain age with a great deal of perspective, educate youth on idealisms that are important to you. Use this time as a positive time and stop avoiding the inevitable. The sun will rise in November and the world will go on, although it might be a very different world than it is today. Nobody can predict the future.
I have no idea what the next four or possibly eight years will bring to this nation, but whatever happens we will have to live with the consequences of our actions today.
We need to think, act and do those things our sense of morality dictates. We need to educate and empower ourselves and our youth because the world is changing before our very eyes.
T. R. Shaw Jr. is CEO of Shaw Communication in Battle Creek, Michigan
