Back in the Day!

I don’t yearn for the good old days.  They were either good or they weren’t, but either way that was then and this is now.  I’d rather be in the present.

Having said that, I’ve been thinking about the time, long ago now, when I heeded John F. Kennedy’s call and went to work for my country as a Foreign Service Officer.  I represented us in India for seven years and was proud to do so.

Not everybody loved us, but we did offer an example of what freedom and liberty could mean for our citizens.  We could have a good life and our children could have an even better one.  We didn’t always agree with our leaders, but we trusted them not to lie to us.  We were not cynical, angry and disillusioned as we are today.

Today’s despair did not come upon us fully formed all at once.  It has been a process, sometimes loud and obvious, like Vietnam and Nixon, sometimes quiet and unnoticed, that has put us where we are.  We have been off track for a long time, and to correct our course now is difficult at best, maybe impossible.

I don’t yearn for the good old days.  I do yearn for the optimism I had back in the day.