This is a little long…stick with me.


I’m seeing many comments about the “bad karma” that currently exists in The People’s House. I would remind you that four years are a drop in the bucket compared to the number of years that house has been occupied by good, worthy people. Smudge away, for sure…but Abraham Lincoln was right when he said,


“The Chief Magistrate derives all his authority from the people, and … [h]is duty is to administer the present Government as it came to his hands and to transmit it unimpaired by him to his successor.


“Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world? In our present differences, is either party without faith of being in the right? If the Almighty Ruler of Nations, with His eternal truth and justice, be on your side…or on yours… that truth and that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal of the American people.


“By the frame of the Government under which we live this same people have wisely given their public servants but little power for mischief, and have with equal wisdom provided for the return of that little to their own hands at very short intervals. While the people retain their virtue and vigilance no Administration by any extreme of wickedness or folly can very seriously injure the Government in the short space of four years.”


This last paragraph, especially, has stuck with me since i first read it. One year, as i read this address to my Social Studies classes, i heard a student mutter, “He never met George Bush. [Jr].” But i focus on the the very last sentence:


“While the people RETAIN THEIR VIRTUE AND VIGILANCE, no administration by any extreme of WICKEDNESS OR FOLLY can seriously injure the Government in the short space of four years.”
We have retained our virtue and vigilance through much wickedness and folly, and the short space of four years will soon draw to a close.


May we retain our virtue and vigilance, for there is still much wickedness abroad and much work to do, and may our incoming administration lean on the legacy of the many, many good men who have led our country up until now. All were flawed, but most were far more good than evil. THEY are the legacy we all need to focus on.


Blessings on President Biden and Vice President Harris, and may they be led by the better angels of their natures.

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