Editorial-Opinion December 2016

I am old enough to recall the assassination of John Kennedy. I know exactly where I was when I heard the news. I was in a classroom in North Cobb High School. Officials at the school chose to withhold the news until just at the end of the day, when they made the announcement to the entire school at once. 

That was in November of 1963.

I also remember tensely perched on the edge of the couch, late at night with my entire family, breathlessly and proudly watching Neil Armstrong take the first step on the moon. 

That was in July 1969. 

I remember cheering with that same American pride when Richard Nixon stood in the door of an airplane and waved his last wave as President. Here was proof that honor and the rule of law were above politics and power. Here was proof that the American experiment was still not just alive, but healthy.

That was in August 1974. 

I was driving on Spaghetti Junction in Atlanta, transitioning from I-285 to I-85 on Thursday evening, Jan. 17, 1991, when Bernard Shaw and CNN broke into a WSB broadcast saying there was “fire in the sky over Baghdad.” The first Gulf War had finally begun. I cheered.

Fast-forward to Oct. 3, 1994. I was sitting in my truck in the afternoon about to head back into the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge for some hog hunting when the word came out that a decision had been reached in the O. J. Simpson murder case. I sat there and waited for that long-anticipated verdict to be read. When it came, I was shocked. 

The point I illustrate here is that there are these dates that will live with us for all of our lives. We each have them. 

Most recently, the night of Nov. 8 and the morning of Nov. 9, I was seated in my truck in a boat yard in the Florida Keys where I am restoring a boat. There is no TV or internet hook-up for boats in the yard. But the office has Wi-Fi, and they had shared the password with me so I could stream election coverage. 

I began the evening in a funk. Based on all the reporting, it seemed a good night to be Hillary Clinton, and to my mind, a reversal of the truth and honor in government that had marked the overthrow of Richard Nixon. Her election, for me, would have marked the end of a birthright we all hold to protection of the individual from abuse of the government. 

If Clinton had won the election, the Second Amendment would have fallen. 

But in a greater sense, the entire Constitution would have been reduced to being simply an artifact of history that would be ignored by her appointments to the Supreme Court. 

In short, the very foundation of how I see America, the very principle that makes this government worthy of my respect and of my protection, would have been fatally wounded. 

As the evening began, I felt like I was attending a wake. As the evening progressed, as I watched with so many of you, it seemed to me that I watched the American spirit get off the canvas and begin to turn the evening into a stunning reversal, a resurgence of what the American people can be. 

In short, from about 9 p.m. until about 3 a.m., I sat there mesmerized by the powerful statement of the American people that played out in the vote counting that election evening. I felt at once both completely emotionally drained and totally restored and invigorated. 

In the beginning, Donald Trump was not my first choice from the Republican field to win the nomination. Equally true is that Clinton was by far my dead-last choice. 

I know there are others who sit on the other side of these recent results. I feel for them because I sat there where they are now, especially with the second election of her husband. 

I guess it is fair to say that I don’t know what the next year holds for us. But I did know what the next year held had the election outcome been different. I was in deep fear for the future of our country had she won. I remain fearful. The world is in a mess, and it is very fragile right now. 

There is much work to do. But now we have a real chance. I think the glint is back in the eye of the eagle. I think we can again become a can-do country that knows the difference between right and wrong, and chooses right. And I will always remember where I was this past election night.