With the country ripping itself apart, various groups using our differences against each other for their own purpose, and a society that's generally come about as close as it can to completely losing its moorings, before it loses its moorings, I bet little note will be taken of it. It'd be easier today to have somebody burn that flag in protest or to wrap themselves in it in protest, than to find somebody to actually ponder and honor it.
The United States is a remarkable nation. Not everything in its history is something we should be proud of, but much of it is, with its ideals as a republic, no matter how poorly realized from time to time, or ever, first among them. We seem to live in a time in which only portions of those ideals, if any portion at all, is recognized by large sections of the nation.
Founded at a time when news traveled no faster than a horse, it's become a real question on whether a republic as large and diverse as ours can survive the age of idiotic Twitter, Facebook, and Electronic news. The nation hardly even seems to have the energy to recognize itself as one to a large extent. If a person's view was limited to what we're seeing currently today, a betting man wouldn't give it good odds for survival. For that matter, a betting man wouldn't give Western society very good odds either. A person with a longer historical view would give both better odds, and be comforted by the lessons of history on discord, discontent, decay and decline, but only cautiously.
2020 is proving to be the Summer of Our Discontent, but we've been on this path for awhile. It might be time to reflect getting off of it and looking for solid ground, but then that would mean not putting our own self interest constantly first.
