Several excellent columns and letters in this paper have tried to explain to angry demonstrators how we’re all in this COVID-19 fight together, and how freedom only exists in balance with security and responsibility.
This letter is for the rest of us, the less-vociferous majority, those Dr. Tom Locke describes as “responsible and community-minded.”
We have our work cut out for us.
The coming decades will prove especially stressful to humanity, as multiple crises come to a head.
We may never completely solve these problems, but we can and must compassionately and intelligently manage them, and we’re going to have to work together, enough of us are going to have to, to point the way forward for human society.
Though it was inevitable that America’s world dominance would decline from its zenith after WWII, our country still has a crucial role to play on the world’s stage, setting an example and exercising leadership on issues such as climate change, biodiversity, disease control, displacement and migration, inequality, terrorism, human rights, and democratic principles.
As Joe Biden said in his inaugural address, “Through the Civil War, the Great Depression, World War, 9/11, through struggle, sacrifice, and setbacks, our ‘better angels’ have always prevailed. In each of these moments, enough of us came together to carry all of us forward. And we can do so now.”
If enough of us follow our “better angels” with intelligence, compassion, and resolution, we can meet these challenges and give our young people some reason to hope.
Ed Chadd,
Port Angeles