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Thursday
As Trump attempts to turn America into an oligarchy while targeting his domestic enemies and fantasizing about territorial expansion, it’s time to dust off, once again, William Ralph Emerson’s “A Nation’s Strength.” It works as a searing indictment of Trump, Elon Musk, the GOP, and Trump’s worshipful supporters.
Don’t look to wealth, military might, or arrogant boasting if you wish to be great, Emerson declares. Rather, look to the character of its people. “Only men can make/ A people great and strong,” he tells us. “Men who for truth and honor’s sake/ Stand fast and suffer long.”
And then:
Brave men who work while others sleep,
Who dare while others fly…
Protesters resisting Trumpism are beginning to speak out all over America. As the president and Musk assault the Constitution, labeling anyone who disagrees with them as “traitors” and “domestic terrorists,” Emerson’s words remind us to remain true to America’s founding ideals.
A Nation’s Strength
By William Ralph Emerson
What makes a nation’s pillars high
And its foundations strong?
What makes it mighty to defy
The foes that round it throng?It is not gold. Its kingdoms grand
Go down in battle shock;
Its shafts are laid on sinking sand,
Not on abiding rock.Is it the sword? Ask the red dust
Of empires passed away;
The blood has turned their stones to rust,
Their glory to decay.And is it pride? Ah, that bright crown
Has seemed to nations sweet;
But God has struck its luster down
In ashes at his feet.Not gold but only men can make
A people great and strong;
Men who for truth and honor’s sake
Stand fast and suffer long.Brave men who work while others sleep,
Who dare while others fly…
They build a nation’s pillars deep
And lift them to the sky.
The pillars are tottering at the moment but they haven’t fallen yet. Nor will they as long as brave men and women, drawing on America’s Enlightenment tradition, strive to make their voices heard.
