AN APOLOGY

Dear Mother and Dad; and Aunt Mary and Uncle Wilbur and Grandad and Grandmother;

I am writing to tell you how very sorry I am. And ashamed. I have lost—my generation has lost—the country you gave to us. Or if not totally lost yet, hanging on by its fingernails. The levers of power are all held by dark forces, or if defended, so weakly as to be already taken. The country you taught me to love, and to be proud of, the country you loved and nurtured, and lived for and struggled for and died for, is no more.

Uncle Wilbur—as you fought your way across North Africa and Sicily and through infamous Monte Cassino and Anzio in the Italian boot, I’m sure you could never have imagined that the nation you fought for and bled for and won all those medals for, would welcome fascism as its own. Uncle Dick, as you parachuted behind Nazi lines on D-Day, as you lay wounded and dying in the hellish forests of the Ardennes, you were at least secure in knowing that you gave your young life for your country. For your patriot family and your community. And you surely could not have believed this. Grandad, as your kept your 27 patriotic leather-bound scrapbooks through every hour of the War with great love and care, worrying about your son every single day and night, the scrapbooks you painstakingly saved for all the family, eventually including me… I know for a fact you could never have believed it. Aunt Mary, you and Grandma waiting and waiting to hear word of Dick until the awful news finally came; and Dad, learning of the loss of your beloved younger brother while far away in the sands of Arabia, with no one there to share what became your lifelong grief. You could not in a thousand years have believed it. And I am so glad you never knew.

The country of integrity and ideals, of founding documents that pointed toward the best of the human spirit; of laws, of institutions and citizens that strived imperfectly for 248 years to become Lincoln’s ‘more perfect union,’ has thrown itself away. In the name of ignorance. Greed. Corruption. Cruelty. Apathy. Authoritarianism. In other words, for nothing.

In its place, a new country is taking shape. In which power is the ultimate goal. In which there is no use for the old ideals. In which ‘oaths of office’ are treated as a joke. In which every aspect of national life is defined by the chaotic and cruel fantasies of one man-child. Very similar, of course, to the situation across the world eighty-some years ago. A situation that brought the world to the doorstep of hell. It seems as if all the dark forces that always lurked here as well—under rocks and in fetid sewers and in the backs of minds far from the light of decency—have been loosed at once. And to those truly paying attention, it is terrifying.

There are many, of course, who see nothing wrong. Or, at least for now, nothing wrong for them. Personally. And others who rejoice, often in the most vulgar and violent of terms, in their new ‘freedoms.’ The freedom to hurt. The freedom to threaten. The freedom to take away others’ rights. The freedom to forget about decency and citizenship and sacrifice. The freedom to bow to greed and corruption, and even take part in it. The freedom to be a new kind of nation, born in betrayal.

Please understand, my loved ones. I have not given up on the country you gave us. And there are many others who have not. But a great many have—either out of fear or self-interest or cult-worship or apathy. Perhaps the battle is not over yet. Perhaps the country is not yet ‘lost.’ Perhaps things are not really so bad. But that doesn’t seem true. And you always taught me to tell the truth. I wish you were here now to tell me… to say, ‘Dougie, it’s going to be OK. There are ups and downs in life—even in the life of nations—and this is just a very rough patch. Things will get better, a recovery can be made. There will be other Independence Days to celebrate—like we did in the old days, on a warm summer evening, with the old feelings, the old thrill, with the old pride and optimism.’

I hope that is the case. I dearly hope so. But tomorrow, July 4, 2025, will not be not one of them. And I am very sorry.