Watching the World Go By
Can We Regain the Pioneer Spirit?
By Ralph Lynn
Dr. Ralph Lynn is a retired professor of Modern European History at Baylor University. Three of his brief commentaries on some ethical dimensions of the passing scene were carried in the last issue of Christian Ethics Today. The three that follow in this issue were originally prepared for The Waco Tribune-Herald and are published here in somewhat revised form
We cannot imitate our Founding Fathers by following their systems of thought and action in slavish, blind fashion. To emulate them in worthy fashion we must be, like them, pioneers and revolutionaries.
Three areas in which we have neglected to imitate them as faithfully as we should, and three areas which call for us to take the kind of intelligent, confident, courageous action they pioneered, seem to be worth examination.
1. First, in the most deplorable fashion, we have neglected to choose leaders of talent and culture to match the gifted men who established this nation.
We have exalted too many basically ignorant, demagogic mediocrities who use the word "elite" in scorn. We have forgotten that the Founders constituted an elite the likes of which cannot, perhaps, be matched save in the Golden Age of Athens.
2. Second, we need to imitate the Founders in the matter of religion in public life. They did not oppose religion, but they rejected any idea of official government recognition or sponsorship of any religion.
They refused to incorporate the topic of religion in political discussion since its use would polarize the voters and make good government difficult to achieve.
3. Honor among public servants is the third matter we have neglected. The Founders risked their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor" for the good of their society. Our current leaders are in little greater danger than ordinary citizens, and many of them are avidly pursuing their fortunes instead of risking them. The concept of honor seems to be degraded just now as thought and taste are degraded by television and MTV. One must wonder if the mass concept of honor must be raised before the standard of honor among public servants can be improved.
That we need to renew our emphasis on these three matters seems beyond dispute among informed, reasonable people.
The problems calling for pioneering, revolutionary thought and action may seem controversial to a wide range of people.
1. The first of these has to do with the forty or so million among us who are essentially outcasts because they are without education, without marketable skills, without work discipline, without adequate health care, and without hope.
Obviously, we must do what we can to help these outcasts and their children equip themselves for employment in competitive businesses, since only so can they develop self-confidence and dignity. This seems to be the only way both they and the nation can escape the problems entailed in life on welfare.
We can do this if we choose to do so but it will not be easy. Unknown numbers of these outcasts are probably hopelessly unemployable in competitive enterprises. We must keep them from starving and we must keep them from threatening the welfare of society. This task will take at least one generation, but it will probably be cheaper to solve this problem than to try to ignore it.
2. Another challenge for pioneering is the reform of our health care chaos.
Currently, two classes of people have adequate health care. One small group is composed of relatively wealthy people who are able to pay the astronomical costs of physicians` services, prescriptions, hospitalization and-perhaps-long-term nursing care. The other-far larger-group is composed of middle-class people lucky enough to be employed by large, successful, stable firms able and willing to contribute to guaranteed pensions and insurance costs.
It is obvious to most objective observers that we need to break the connection with employment and adopt some form of universal health care, as every other reasonably civilized nation has long since done.
Former President Bush had it exactly backward when he said that "we have the will but not the wallet."
3. The challenges to pioneering presented by our outcasts and our health care chaos are so intricately intertwined with our problem in education that one can hardly think of dealing with them separately.
Three statements which may have some merit seem to sum up a view of this third problem. First, good students come almost exclusively from homes which value learning. Second, any school at any level which wishes to graduate good students must take in only good students-just as successful college football teams recruit only outstanding athletes. Three, to make any significant improvement in any education system, we must improve the quality of the homes of our children.
Can our vast, pluralistic, democratic society produce leaders comparable to our Founders, elect these elite people to office, and then engage in the generations-long program which alone could solve our problems?
We have the intelligence but can we muster the confidence and the courage to be the pioneers our ancestors were?
