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By Diane Singer|Published Date: November 03, 2009
Remember the children's book about the little train that "thought it could" and so accomplished a difficult task? If that book were being written today, it would probably be called I Think I Can't. This is essentially the message of Peggy Noonan's latest article, "We're Governed by Callous Children." In the article, Noonan captures the morose mood of the country and what's behind it.
She writes,
Americans are starting to think the problems we are facing cannot be solved. Part of the reason is that the problems—debt, spending, war—seem too big. But a larger part is that our government, from the White House through Congress and so many state and local governments, seems to be demonstrating every day that they cannot make things better. They are not offering a new path, they are only offering old paths—spend more, regulate more, tax more in an attempt to make us more healthy locally and nationally. And in the long term everyone—well, not those in government, but most everyone else—seems to know that won't work. It's not a way out. It's not a path through....
When I see those in government, both locally and in Washington, spend and tax and come up each day with new ways to spend and tax—health care, cap and trade, etc.—I think: Why aren't they worried about the impact of what they're doing? Why do they think America is so strong it can take endless abuse?
I think I know part of the answer. It is that they've never seen things go dark. They came of age during the great abundance, circa 1980-2008 (or 1950-2008, take your pick), and they don't have the habit of worry. They talk about their "concerns"—they're big on that word. But they're not really concerned. They think America is the goose that lays the golden egg. Why not? She laid it in their laps. She laid it in grandpa's lap.
They don't feel anxious, because they never had anything to be anxious about. They grew up in an America surrounded by phrases—"strongest nation in the world," "indispensable nation," "unipolar power," "highest standard of living"—and are not bright enough, or serious enough, to imagine that they can damage that, hurt it, even fatally.
We are governed at all levels by America's luckiest children, sons and daughters of the abundance, and they call themselves optimists but they're not optimists—they're unimaginative. They don't have faith, they've just never been foreclosed on. They are stupid and they are callous, and they don't mind it when people become disheartened. They don't even notice.
I know that Noonan has captured my sense that the problems we face are simply too big to fix, and that those in charge are just sticking Band-Aids on the problems, hoping against hope that the crash doesn't happen on their watch. Obviously, what Noonan doesn't mention is that God can fix America, starting with bringing His Church back into line.
Therefore, my prayer is that this sense of hopelessness and loss of faith in our government will lead us to bend our knees before the One who can solve what has gone wrong. We need a Church that has recovered her First Love and that is no longer lukewarm. We need a Church on fire for Christ -- filled with people who identify His interests in other people, and don't merely look after their own interests.
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