Will US get a wake-up call that revitalizes national character? | Opinion

Once upon a time there was a television ad in which the subject receives a slap and cries out “Thanks, I needed that.” That ad could easily be about our country of late.

When my family had first moved to Central Florida in 1957, my father was working for a defense contractor who was assigned the task of building this country’s first rocket that would carry soon the world’s first earth satellite, the Vanguard, into orbit. America would demonstrate its scientific and technological leadership.

On our first days in Florida, my father took us to Cape Canaveral to see the site of the future launch. As we returned home that October afternoon listening to the car radio, the music was interrupted by the words “We interrupt this broadcast. The Soviet news agency TASS announced that the Soviet Union had launched an earth satellite.”

My father pulled off the road and stared silently ahead. How could this be? The Soviets had humiliated us. The device, named Sputnik, was the size of a basketball and during the low part of its orbit was visible from earth. Suddenly, a new era in politics and science had thrust itself upon us.

Suddenly, the priorities of the U.S. were transformed. Fear beset us. We were no longer the technological leaders of the world. It would not be long before Nikita Khrushchev would be pounding on his desk at the UN, shouting “We will bury you.”

Whatever our educational priorities may have been, science was the new king. When the U.S. hope for a satellite ignominiously failed, a new sense of urgency suddenly prevailed. Government spending on scientific research and education ballooned, and for a substantial time the U.S. stood atop the world.

We know that every generation experiences an event that transformed it. Certainly the advent of the airplane, the explosion of the atomic bomb, the attack on the World Trade Center, the abolition of the draft, and many other occurrences dominated the lives of people who lived then.

The U.S. has not experienced such an earth-shaking event recently but historians, theologians and philosophers sense that one is past due. Our country is experiencing a severe crisis, our democratic principles are being cast aside and our character has grown flaccid. I was astonished to learn that the U.S. Army, unable to meet its enlistment quotas, has put in place a remedial program to prepare potential recruits. I am not surprised.

Military bases – even those of the U.S. Marine Corps – feature the whole range of fast-food franchises. Don’t care for what’s available in the field ration mess (perhaps liver and onions, collard greens, cabbage and rice pudding)? No need to leave the base, McBurger is nearby.

It seems to be a sad truth that we respond only when we are challenged. Sputnik did our nation a big favor. No doubt some other wake-up call will soon bring us to our senses. Most people who have endured military service will confess that it built their self-discipline. There are many equally valuable forms of national service. Some nations have a mandatory service. While I received an excellent education at one of America’s oldest colleges, I can admit that far too much time was spent with frivolities or worse.

Currently much of our nation, sad to say, seems fueled by rage. It is a well-known truth that anger and resentments have a boomerang effect. I didn’t fully grasp this truth until I saw a book titled “Forgive Everyone Everything.” While I don’t know if that axiom constitutes a workable foreign policy or a sound business practice, it promises a satisfying life.

Currently, well less that half of entering college students are said to read proficiently; high school teachers often do not require students to read entire books; and the reading of non-required materials is vanishing. This is a highly destructive trend. Reading challenging material not only builds the students’ reading “muscle,” it provides them with essential understanding and information.

A wakeup call: I read that Alcoholics Anonymous has published a “Plain Language” version of its basic text, after 90 years of the original version (written in 1935) getting millions and millions sober. Headlines now say “We are watching a super power destroy itself.”

Yes, it’s past time for our wakeup call.

Larry Fennelly may be contacted at larney_f@hotmail.com.