We wait and wait, but for what?

Early each morning I walk on the nearby golf course. I carry binoculars to watch a pair of young bald eagles in their nest high above. It’s been a great couple of months watching them grow. Now they flap their wings vigorously and hop about. And then they sit on the nest and wait and wait. The air is cool and the sky is blue. Water in the harbor is still, and boats, eager for summer’s warmth, are clearly reflected.

Soon the young eagles will leave the nest. Their parents, proud symbols of our nation, are near. Somehow, I am reminded of America. We also wait, and wait... for yet another presidential election. Millions and millions of advertising dollars spent — for what? Another 30 or 40 percent voter turnout. We wait and wait.

I’d like to thank Jack Heller for two absolutely tremendous columns which appeared recently in the Inter Lake. I hope you will find them online if you missed them. In “Obituary for America” (May 24), the retired colonel imagines our nation in 2026, at the age of 250, as she lies dying because her citizens were apathetic and uncaring. Friendly nations express some regret and our enemies are dancing in the streets.

No nation in the world has ever been created with the foundation of America. The wisdom and will of our forefathers is unparalleled. The Constitution and Bill of Rights were historically unique and gave all citizens the opportunities that the Pilgrims had dared to dream about. Lady Liberty on Ellis Island opened her arms to immigrants who wanted a new and better life in America. And they found just that.

And the decades roll by; wars and more wars. We wait and wait. And now there is ISIS. The threat around the world seems greater than ever before. We wait.

In “Hope for America” (June 7), Col. Heller pleads for an American spiritual revival and awakening. Oh, that a single candidate for president could speak as clearly and make a case for our future in this way.

In 1787, Alexander Tyler, University of Edinburgh (Google him), is reported to have written: “A democracy is temporary in nature; it will exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury... the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury... The average age of the world’s great civilizations is 200 years.” Briefly, those nations progressed from bondage to spiritual faith to courage to liberty to abundance to complacency to apathy to dependence and finally back to bondage. And where would you estimate we are today? We wait and wait.

Thanks again, Col. Heller. —Nancy Idler, Bigfork