Lest we forget lessons of the past

"For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." — Ephesians 6:12, New Revised Standard Version

"The truth unquestionably is, that the only path to a subversion of the republican system of the country, is by flattering the prejudices and apprehensions of the people, and exciting their jealousies and apprehensions, to throw affairs into confusion, and bring on civil commotion." — Alexander Hamilton, 1792

Two quotations from different centuries with opposing contexts — spiritual vs. political — appear to have little in common except when viewed against humanity's background of time, location and global events: Flag Day 1777, Civil War 1861, Gettysburg Address, Wounded Knee, Argonne Forest during World War I in 1918, Pearl Harbor in 1941, Normandy Beach during World War II in 1945, Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, Holocaust in Germany in 1945, elections in 2020 and 2024, Boulder, Colorado, in 2025, Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Paraphrasing a popular 1960s music lyric: "How many times can humanity turn its head and pretend that it just doesn't see? The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind. The answer is blowing in the wind." Driven by the rhythmic beat of 16 galloping hooves reverberating from heaven's cosmic darkness, a white dove sails across storm-tossed waves on a crimson sea to sleep in the sand. We have the ability to be tender and fierce. We have the ability to be soft and strong. We have the ability to be fragile and courageous — sometimes all in the same day.

WAYNE A. YOUNG

Bonners Ferry