Camelot is Our Good Deeds

Truth’s past and path can be distorted by the inventions of rewritten history, revisionary biographies and redundant documentaries. American history is more than our individual lives, hometowns or political views – and no matter how fast we talk or write, we’ll never overtake the making of it.

Fifty years ago we mourned a televised presidential funeral.  Today let us celebrate the recapture of the promise of our potential.

As Americans we’re into having the biggest and best, too often taking the measure of friends, spouses, siblings, teachers, presidents and ourselves by how much, how often, even how tall.

Believing how many times you repeat Founding Fathers, The Constitution, The Second Amendment, Family Values and Right to Bear Arms proves patriotic prowess – deflects how and why our Declaration of Independence influenced the author of a two minute address given in November 1863.

Neither repetition nor longevity measure the man or his time.

Thousands of history books tell us there were four Kennedy brothers whose wealth could have freed them from any public responsibility, but sometimes the character of a man is called out, beyond the warm light of friends and family into the darkness of war dead, the uncertainty of the Universe, even the dangers of segregation.

Some remember where they were on December 7, 1941; some where we were on Friday November 22, 1963, as children will, September 11, 2001, yet sometimes memories blur the moments of who we were, before and between journeys through historical wounds. Not being able to go back to before, does not mean forgetting who we were.  Sometimes ashes are the only foundation available on which to build a House of decent quality and people of broader vision.

We were better after Thursday, November 19, 1863; resolute after Sunday December 7, 1941; devastated after Friday November 22, 1963 and duped after Tuesday September 11, 2001. Torn apart, wounded or killed; tarnished or rebranded; sold a crock of weapons of mass destruction bull hockey; sometimes sold down the river as damaged goods – America survives – not because of the tallest building or lowest Wall Street.

The measure of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness was never the accumulation of the most things — it’s our daily good deeds and association ripples that define our lives. Do you remember where you were Tuesday November 19, 2013 when a good Deeds was stabbed multiple times by his only son, before losing him to a self-inflected gunshot?  It only takes a moment for a life to change forever, but our full measure is discovered in the truth of our history, friends, family and prayers, and like Virginia State Senator Creigh Deeds, we rise up for the journey forward, yet again.

What Lincoln fought to preserve, FDR to retain, Kennedy to idealistically reignite, Deeds to share in hugs, and Obama to recapture – is our American Camelot.  Most conservative political and media leadership are too blinded by conservative corporate currency, to recognize this truth, but you David Brooks, know better.

Camelot didn’t begin with a young widow’s personal attempt to imprint her dead husband’s legacy.  Yes, our national Camelot was reborn January 20, 1961, when we accepted a rich kid’s challenge to, Ask what you can do for your country, and joined in his evolution from Hyannis Port to the Universe of Space, World Peace Corp, Nuclear Test Bans, Attack on Poverty, Civil Rights, Racial Equality, the Medal of Freedom and the ARTS.

America’s Camelot pre-dates Government is the problem and Bush/Cheney treachery, and now with Senate Filibuster realignment and an Iranian first step, we may recapture the essence of what was known as Camelot.

For a thousand days, our reawakened souls, were the full measure of our devotion to a New Frontier of Justice for All and good Deeds.