Without Vision, America Faces a Myopic Future

Yesterday the temperature was in the 80s and the sun was shining--a beautiful summer day.

Yet walking around Concord, every conversation began with reference to the heat--continually repeated complaints about the miserable discomforts of sun and humidity, hopeful prophesies of imminent cooling.

For nine months a year we readily adapt to the weather we hate, wait patiently for the spring release from the prison of heated rooms and cars, only to inveigh against the liberating relief of the summer sun. It is almost as if the brief beauty of the time had obliterated recollection of the brutal onslaught from which we had so recently emerged and that even now were preparing for the inevitable return.

The climate, of course, is still beyond the reach of technological innovation. But the papers regularly reveal examples of a similar perversity, which could be--but are not--altered by human knowledge at the command of human wisdom:

--The huge, multitrillion-dollar national debt, recklessly incurred, is now beginning to depress the economy, just as we knew it would. For the sake of the present we have sacrificed future prosperity--if not this year, then next, or a few years from now.

--Scientists are heading toward the Antarctic to study a hole in the life-protecting ozone layer that is gradually being depleted by chemical pollution--if not this year, then next, or a decade from now.

--Our reliance on other countries for products we could make has already exterminated more than a million jobs and is transforming us into a second-class, debt-ridden nation--if not this year, then next, or a generation from now.

A critic observing such disastrous conduct is led to the search for villains, someone to blame: the amiably incompetent Reagan, perhaps, or his righteous predecessor. But a phenomenon so deeply rooted, the readiness to sacrifice the future for present gain or comfort, must have causes more profound. If it is not the work of leaders, and surely not the will of God, it has to be grounded in the way we do things, what is frequently called “the system.”

Reflecting upon this truism, I ran across a yellowed newspaper clipping, more than a decade old, which recorded the angered dismay of the citizenry of Kennebunk, Me., upon arriving one morning to find that the town Centennial Plot--a remnant of the original village green--had been “removed by state highway crews to make way for new traffic islands.” Inquiry established that the removal was pursuant to a state highway project approved by the citizens themselves. The village green was the most important and visible link with the Kennebunk past, yet it was gone before anyone noticed.

Who destroyed the Centennial Plot? Not the highway crew; they only followed instructions. Not the voters of Kennebunk; they merely approved a recommendation to ease congested traffic. Not the State Highway Commission; it merely performed its assigned task to plan new roads that, conclusive studies showed, would benefit the entire area.

So was it Dwight D. Eisenhower, who initiated the vast highway program that helped provide the federal funds for the construction of this particular roadway, who destroyed the Centennial Plot?

No, but perhaps we are getting closer. There would have been no highway program without all the cars and thus--as radical theory predicts--the villains must be the Big Three auto manufacturers. The managers of those companies, however, would immediately counter such an accusation by reminding us that they built cars because people wanted them. The argument is unanswerable.

Yet common sense tells us that the millions of people who, year after year, drove their new acquisitions from a dealer’s lot did not want to destroy the Centennial Plot. Had a poll been taken, a majority would probably have supported preservation. Yet when they signed a bill of sale, they helped initiate events that ultimately evoked the futile anger of a Maine town.

Thus it was the “system” that forever erased the fine old Kennebunk Centennial Plot. And it is that same system that is diminishing the ozone layer, increasing poverty and leading an entire great nation toward economic decline.

It is fed by elected leaders who pursue a form of approach known as “lack of vision” --vision of what America was intended to be, and what it can be, were things differently ordered. Indeed, in their own pursuit of instant success the politicians have become part of the very system so badly in need of overhaul. They will not behave differently unless the people, recalling the ancient hopes and values of America, force it on them. It could be done if enough voices are raised, enough movements are formed. We still believe it--that the seasons change, that the future deserves the exertions and sacrifice of the present. At least I think we do.

And if I am wrong? It was written long ago. “Where there is no vision,” say the Scriptures, “the people perish.”