Rock-Bottomed and Copper Sheathed
Today is Wednesday, January 13, 2021. A week ago today was the Capitol Hill Insurrection, when what Nicodemus Legend called “the heavily armed uncouth” attempted to spit on the United States Constitution. One week from today, Joseph R. Biden will be sworn in as president of the United States of America. Today the House of Representatives impeached Donald J. Trump, making him the first (and one hopes, only) president to be impeached twice.
Six people are dead, but the Union stands. It endures and shall abide.
“Yes, Dan’l Webster’s dead — or, at least, they buried him. But every time there’s a thunder storm around Marshfield, they say you can hear his rolling voice in the hollows of the sky. And they say that if you go to his grave and speak loud and clear, “Dan’l Webster — Dan’l Webster!” the ground ‘ll begin to shiver and the trees begin to shake. And after a while you’ll hear a deep voice saying, “Neighbour, how stands the Union?” Then you better answer the Union stands as she stood, rock-bottomed and copper sheathed, one and indivisible, (emphasis added) or he’s liable to rear right out of the ground. At least, that’s what I was told when I was a youngster.” “The Devil and Daniel Webster,” by Stephen Vincent Benet, The Saturday Evening Post, 1936.
Donald J. Trump is alleged to be functionally illiterate. Ironically, he is making me read more. He has encouraged me to reread the Constitution, “The Devil and Daniel Webster,” and Edward Everett Hale’s “The Man Without a Country.” If DJT were capable of reading and comprehending these three classics of American Literature, I would recommend he do so. Unfortunately, I believe all three would be too difficult for him. Perhaps he could watch the movies. It might teach him what it means to be an American. I have already suggested via Twitter and e-mail that he watch Schoolhouse Rock to learn how American government is supposed to function. (It’s possible I was less than ladylike in these communications. My father, a fourth-generation Republican and proud of it, insisted even if you thought the man was an idiot, you should still respect the office of the presidency. DJT has made it impossible for me to do so.)
Can the nation survive the Orange Oaf? Or has Voldemorange permanently damaged a once-great nation? Damaged, yes, I regret so, but destroyed, no. The nation is stronger than one idiot and his cultists.
(As the trespassers in the Capitol Hill Insurrection carried as many or more Trump 2020 banners as they did Stars and Bars and Old Glory, I cannot regard them as misguided patriots. Their loyalty appears to be to DJT rather than the USA.)
Are we still rock-bottomed and copper sheathed? If not, how can we regain that status? Were we ever one and indivisible? (Many of my friends say not, that it was only words before, and never true.)
Were it not too great a logistical strain on the US Navy, I would suggest giving the Capitol Hill insurrectionists the Philip Nolan treatment as punishment for their seditious crimes. For the rioters, I would recommend having them read “The Man Without a Country” or see one of the movie adaptations. It might make them think.
“Alas, but they couldn’t do such,
For they hadn’t thought often and hadn’t thought much.” Virginia Kahn
I might also ask them to read and copy out in their best handwriting the second verse of “America the Beautiful.”
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw
Confirm thy soul in self-control
Thy liberty in law!
God bless America, and God help us all.
