CEO, Tennessee Electric Cooperative Association
I spent a lot of time this May commemorating the accomplishments of young adults who have reached a significant milestone in their lives — high school graduation. My oldest son reached this important point in his own life. He donned his cap and robe and officially completed his high school years.
I could fill this column with the river of emotions I felt as I watched him walk across the stage and receive his diploma. And while I am quite proud of the accomplishments he has earned in high school, I am so much prouder of his character and the kind, compassionate, self-assured young man he has become.
We hosted a party to honor him, and many of our guests offered up conversation about things other than high school. Several asked my thoughts about the current political climate. They said things like, “Isn’t it just terrible these days?” or, “I’ve never seen it so bad.”
I don’t blame them. And I don’t know many folks who would say otherwise because trust in political leaders and belief that America is on the right track are definitely at low points in history.
Just a few days earlier, I had listened to a podcast where Jon Meacham, a prominent historian who lives here in Tennessee, was describing a series of important current events. His contention was that these specific events had fostered incredible pessimism and uncertainty among the population.
He described how the U.S. had concluded a long war on foreign shores, a war that altered the view of American power to our foreign adversaries. The population of the U.S. was shifting from rural farm communities to larger urban centers, changing the cultural expectations about family and community. Racial division continued to be a problem as one of the major political parties struggled to nominate a presidential candidate because of the racial and religious strife present in its midst. The explosion of new technology was changing the way Americans received information. And culture wars raged amongst the people, fueled by real-time access to information that those same technological advancements had brought.
Meacham then revealed that his description was not of our current social and political climate of 2023 but of 1923. His discussion of the end of the Great War (World War I), the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan and its political strength, the invention of radio and the Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton felt eerily familiar to today’s political and social landscape.
But his conclusion about the state of our country is worth sharing here:
“My view of the country, which is very similar to my view of human nature, is that it is a remarkable thing that just enough (Americans) have done the right thing at just the right time to continue an experiment that’s worth defending. And I think that the American story is a perennial battle between our worst instincts and our better angels. And sometimes the better angels win, and sometimes the worst instincts do.”
So I told my guests at my son’s graduation party that I believed it wasn’t the worst of times. Though our leaders are not perfect, and everyone makes mistakes, I believe better days are ahead. And how could I not believe that? Looking across the room at the fine young man who just graduated from high school, my optimism was off the charts.
