While affirming the separation of church and state, I thank God for giving us governments by which we may live together for the common good. From the federal to the local levels, governments made me into the person writing these words that public schools taught me to use. Government protected me from diseases and disasters and enemies, foreign and domestic. From Medicare to Social Security, it has been the helping hand for us older folk. All the roads I have travelled in my lifetime were built by the governments of the people and by the people and for the people. One road project in particular hit close to home, literally and figuratively.
When Dwight Eisenhower was our President, he led us into infrastructure endeavors that strengthened our economy as never before, and the Interstate Highway System was one of the most important and enduring. This particular highway bill was ratified and signed in 1956 as a means of defending our major cities in case of a nuclear attack. The project was going strong when I graduated from high school in 1960, and paved the way for me to become old enough to realize how good government makes for a great place in which to live.
Fate played an important role in a series of circumstances that led me to building Interstate Highway 55 between Memphis and New Orleans. My steady girlfriend in my senior year of high school happened to be the daughter of the major contractor for the Interstate project in the area. He graciously hired me to work for the four summers of my college years.
In the first summer I worked as a “grease monkey” servicing the earth-moving machines and in charge of the generators that produced the lighting for the night crew. Over the four summers I learned to operate most of the Caterpillar equipment, and by my last summer, I was put in charge of a crew to build a small county road. The job educated me to see the values of hard work and to appreciate all the other people involved in this project. It “literally” educated me with making enough money to totally pay for all my college costs.
So you can see why I thank God for government, from Eisenhower on. It is the infrastructure that creates the infrastructure whereby we all prosper and grow. Without it, how would you ever get to work without the roads or provide for the Covid 19 vaccines? So I have a hard time when I hear people complaining about too much government when so much of my life is the beneficiary of good government.
Our friend from several Chautauqua summers is the talented and passionate pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta who recently became the Senator from Georgia. This past week, Rev. Raphael Warnock made his first address on the floor of the senate supporting the Voting Rights Bill and received a standing ovation. At one point he said, “As a man of faith, I believe democracy is the political enactment of a spiritual idea: the sacred worth of all human beings.”
Thank God those anarchist who tried to do us in on January 6, failed to “stop the count” of votes, but their ugly legacy lingers. Good government prevailed against that fratricidal tyranny, but we still have a long and winding road to travel in order to build that highway Isaiah imagined: In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God… Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together.
Crawford, Very good blog this morning. I think you should send a copy to your friend Senator Warnock. I will be using the Interstate System tomorrow on my way South and grateful for it. Currie
Excellent Dudley and being a Memphis gal,I’ve traveled many a mile on Highway 55.
We are all lucky that your road led you to Isaiah!
Government works best when people of the government see themselves as faithful servants of the people and working to further the health an well being of the nation. Today the elected official seeks to line his own pockets, seeks doing for himself, and gives little thought to the idea of serving others. Our forefathers when they signed the declaration of independence, were in fact signing their own death warrants. Few educated people of that time would have given the colonies little chance going up the greatest military might of that age. Would we could live up to these ideals!
Very good blog today. We seem to have Representatives who make for good government and some who would like to choose who gets to vote. That construction job was a side of you that I did not know about. A job put me through college as well, but I didn’t get to wear a hard had.
Crawford, details of your journey continue to surprise me. I spent 2 college summers hauling Rock and mixing mortar for my stone mason brother in law. That convinced me to stay in school!