Ron Williams

Pennsylvania Furnace

Donald Trump would have us believe that the ‘real’ world is one governed by strength, power and force. A world where ‘might makes right’. A world where America can threaten, coerce or attack anyone anywhere to serve its perceived interests.

Indeed, “might makes right’ has been the governing standard for human civilization throughout most of human history. It meant that power and strength ruled. And that the few at the top prospered. Life for everyone else was miserable.

That is, until that paradigm was challenged 250 years ago…when America’s founding fathers charted an alternate course.

Unwilling to bear the yoke of an all powerful leader and his christened elite, the United States broke a new path. One which argued that a people, united, could govern themselves. One based on rules by which all were bound and by which all could benefit.

250 years later we’ve shown that power can be shared and ethically used for the good of all.

The current moment should be a reminder that how power is used is a choice. Even with a system of government designed to prevent it, power can be usurped if good people aren’t protecting it. Unfortunately, too many are not, including our ‘representatives’ in Congress: Thompson, McCormick and Fetterman.

America will be great again only if we steer clear of becoming a country which bullies to get what it wants. Remember “…of the people, by the people and for the people”? Abiding by the rule of law, striving to treat one another as equals, and working together for the common good is what made America great in the first place.

We should never forget that America’s birth was a challenge to the belief that “might make right.”