“We need to come together” is irreconcilable with kneeling at the national anthem.
Memorial Day. The memory of others. The sacrifice of others.
The Capitalist exists because of you, and we want to hear from you!
Become a paid subscriber today and access the Live Capitalist chat
Unity is the fruit of shared unifying moments.
Society does not achieve “unity” like it purchases a pie. Individuals participate in moments, humbly, removing oneself and one’s personal agenda, and that fosters unity. Any calls for “unity” are hollow if those folks are incapable of joining in and defending unifying moments. “We need to come together” is irreconcilable with kneeling at the national anthem. Unity demands unifying moments.
Memorial Day is a unifying moment because at its core is that humility required to foster unity. Memorial Day is not about us, not in the slightest sense. Even the most powerful person on the planet is humbled by the solider who died in our nation’s defense. Even the most decorated Marine alive takes a back seat to the deceased navy corpsman. We stand and honor those who gave it all.
Memorial Day is the ultimate unifying moment because the individual steps aside to celebrate and honor those who cannot take the microphone and talk about themselves like a crappy best man toast. The dead cannot accept praise, cannot blush from embarrassment, cannot say “thank you” and wave to the crowds. We celebrate those incapable of acknowledging it, and that humbles us.
We need humility to have unifying moments to foster unity.
The Department of Interior, at President Trump’s orders, has begun a massive undertaking throughout Washington, DC to make the nation’s capital safe and beautiful especially as we approach our 250th Anniversary.
This is a unifying moment.
Sponsored by PolitiBrawl Shop
NEW:“Jolly Donald” Beach Towel
Annoy Liberals.
Be the envy of your friends.
Raise your MAGA colors at the beach or the pool.
The Tidal Basin around the Jefferson Memorial, home to the famed cherry blossoms, was crumbling. The 2000-foot-long reflecting pools before the Lincoln Memorial were leaking and full of garbage and algae. Meridian Hill Park in north of the White House was a gathering place for crackheads and its large cascading fountain hadn’t worked in nearly a decade. Lafeyette Square in front of the White House has not had working fountains since the Bush Administration. Columbus Fountain outside of Union Station hasn’t been operable since the Carter Administration.
Missed opportunities to unite us.
All of this is being reversed. Sixteen months after his inauguration, President Trump has managed to fix decades of neglect, disrepair, disfunction, dilapidation in our nation’s capital.
Why? Because they are places which foster unity. One cannot stand before the grandeur of the Columbus Fountain or the easily overlooked statue of Brigadier General Thaddeus Kościuszko without absenting one’s self. They are physical reminders of another: stone, bronze, mortar, solid putting you in your place, forcing you to accept the greatness of someone else.
Washington, DC with its diagonal grand boulevards intersecting the grid, has hundreds of little areas with fountains, statutes, memorials all getting proper attention. Just a few days ago the Parks Department unveiled the renovated memorial to General Philip Sheridan (a Union General whose scorched earth tactics were so brutal that they pale in comparison to some Confederates Generals whose statutes leftists tore down a few years ago… but history is told by the victors and I’ll avoid the comically oxymoronic tangent for another article…) designed by the same sculptor of Mount Rushmore where fountains had not worked since the Ford Administration. It is now restored and water again flows.
The President reopened a place where people remove themselves. A unifying place. Creating unity.
Working fountains, proper benches, decent lighting, fixed signage, flowers and trees, beauty itself, these are all unifying. It is why the left attacks them. Why, in their rage, they destroy what is not theirs. Why, in their hatred, they deface that which celebrates others. Why, in their own ego-driven administration, they diverted resource from that which creates unity like parks and memorials, to that which pushes their own agenda.
The Obama Department of Interior spent tens of millions rewriting all the signs at our national parks to emphasize climate change while he allowed the park outside the White House to crumble and serve prostitutes and drug dealers. Yes, Obama was looking for a form of unity around his vision, but not the nation.
Parks. Fountains. Memorials. Memorial Day itself. They transcend us, time and space, they force us to absent ourselves, to put someone or something else in the center even if that center is a small space is a tiny corner of a busy street.
We must fiercely defend unifying moments. The flag. The national anthem. The nation’s capital and its many memorials, squares, statues, plinths, squares, and fountains. Memorial Day. The memory of others. The sacrifice of others.
Nothing about the self. America first through tangibly lived, shared, unifying places and moments. America first indeed.
Honor and courage.
Daniel Turner is the founder and executive director of Power The Future, a national nonprofit organization that advocates for American energy jobs. He also runs a sheep and cattle farm in rural Virginia. Contact him at daniel@powerthefuture.com and follow him on Twitter @DanielTurnerPTF
Let us know your thoughts in the new Capitalist chat portal.
