History Repeating Itself?

Once there was a great nation – "founded by pilgrims who decided to leave their own country which didn’t encourage freedom of religion. They migrated to an uncivilized land inhabited only by savages. The rock where they landed was to become a national shrine.

They drove off the natives, built rude shelters and houses of worship, setting aside a special day to give thanks.

 

These pilgrims believed in their God and they also believed in work. They established schools that in a way became the first public, free education in the world. 

Other colonists came and established other communities. And some of the noblest words ever written began to surface. Facades of our modern buildings bear some of them, ‘liberty,’ ‘justice,’ ‘freedom of worship.’

Then an older nation sent tax agents to exploit the colonists. The colonists sent their greatest men as representatives to a general assembly, choosing a gentleman farmer as their leader. He united them and won the war against the ‘old world.’ That farmer is known as the ‘father of his country.’ Today a famous U.S. city is named after him.

Ultimately, a civil war divided the fledgling country. Its leader who tried to keep the Republic united was assassinated. His murder has been immortalized by one of the greatest playwrights of all time. After the wounds of the bloody civil war healed, the nation became a world power. 

Next the citizens began to think of security paid for by tax money. Farmers petitioned for price supports. The government bought up crops and stored them in warehouses. Industrialists were next to ask for tax benefits. The middle class declined under the added tax burden. Crime became so commonplace it was dangerous to walk the streets at night.

 

A crippled man led the nation into a war and foreign entanglements.

A general who had been victimized by government pleaded with the nation to return to the principles of the founding fathers. He died bitterly thinking his anguished thoughts.

An honest senator dared to speak out for a halt to foreign aid and foreign subversion. He was branded a reactionary.

The nation fell deeper into debt. It joined a league of the world. Increased taxes to send wheat to its enemies, devalued its currency, substituting base materials for silver in its coins." 


That nation's name? Ancient Rome. I skipped a couple of lines to tell you that, lines that are facts of history. Mr. Rekstad had summed up that the nation – Rome was totally corrupt, its middle class dead. The barbarians moved in and destroyed civilization.   

The parallel to our own history is almost eerie, so much so one wonders if we can avoid those last couple of sentences. The rock where those first Romans landed is called the pilgrim’s rock – foundation of the Temple of Jupiter. The gentleman farmer was Cincinnatus; the assassinated leader Julius Caesar; the crippled leader – Caligula; the general Mark Anthony and the honest Senator Cicero. Shakespeare of course the playwright who immortalized the death of Caesar.

How will we finish our story – the story of another great nation?      

Written by Ronald Reagan for his Daily Radio Program on  August 7, 1978

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Text source: STORIES IN HIS OWN HAND–The Everyday Wisdom of Ronald Reagan, edited by Kiron K. Skinner, Annelise Anderson, and Martin Anderson. Published by The Free Press, New York, 2001. Pages 49-53. A collection of stories Ronald Reagan wrote for his daily national radio program.