DANIEL MCCLOUD

If you’re reading this, then you made it to the year of our Lord, 2023. Perhaps there is light snow on the ground and a solitary robin sitting on a frosty tree limb just outside your window. If you’re lucky, it’s the weekend, and you get to enjoy the view while sipping coffee or tea without the worry of having to be anywhere at any particular time. The snow clouds may give way to a sliver of sunshine, and the reflection of the sun on the snow becomes almost blinding.

You’re safe, relatively healthy, and in good spirits; a perfect time to reflect on your state of being. For some, there is a tendency to reflect on our youth; indeed, for many, the good ole days when we were young and carefree, when weddings and baby showers were the norm, not funerals and memorials. But the thing about the good ole days is that they’re the good ole days. Times change, and so do people.
Inevitably our minds ease back to reality, to a world of division, where any subject can suddenly become the spark that ignites a mindless debate, where a good idea is no longer a good idea but, in the mind of some, a politicized weapon. And approximately 158 years since the end of the Civil War, there are whispers of another war, a race war. One can argue as to the catalyst of the division. Some point to the twice elected African American president, Barack Obama.

Regarding the election of Obama, it seems that half of the country was not ready for hope and change. Inexplicably, many blamed Obama for the increased racial tension in America. In truth, America’s legacy of hate caused the racial cracks to expand into fissures and eventually gaping sinkholes. The fear that a Black president would seek to right all of the wrongs of America’s hate-filled and bloody history stoked the guilty concerns of some. The thought of executive-ordered reparations led to a renewed focus on Southern Strategy.

Ironically, the platform for Obama was hope and change, while the platform for Donald Trump was to make America Great Again, coined by former Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton during their presidential campaigns. Somewhere between Obama and Trump, many believed that greatness is found by continuing the status quo of majority rule. At the same time, the rest of America sought peace in the hope that their voices would finally be heard. The world has changed, and we now wonder if these times will ever be considered the good ole days for anyone.

As Barbara Streisand wrote in the timeless song,

The Way We Were:
Can it be that it was all
so simple then?
Or has time re-written
every line?
If we had the chance
to do it all again
Tell me, would we?
Could we?

Memories
May be beautiful and yet
What’s too painful
to remember
We simply to choose
to forget

When examining using these lyrics as a lens from which to continue our reflection, let us at least acknowledge that life was far more complex and challenging than simple for most of us. If given a chance to recognize the country’s history in all of its truths, we hope there would be a more equitable system of access. Or as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King once proclaimed In the speech titled “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” “All we say to America is, ‘Be true to what you said on paper.’ ” Accountability to the promises of the forefathers is a great start. But what of the pain, broken promises, and hidden agendas? Painful indeed, but we surely cannot forget. We must reflect on the past; while being in the present to ensure good ole days for all.