LETTERS: CHOOSING OUR COURSE

To the editor:

During a period of political campaigns, party leaders as well as the parties themselves will claim that they have the answers and are uniquely qualified to guide the course of history to help us realize our potential. There are always those who claim that they have the experience and ability to bring us that kind of fulfillment and success which as modern messiahs they can offer us for a mere vote of approval.

I think it was Thomas Carlyle who was an early proponent of the "great man" (or woman) theory, referring to those great people who emerge from society and have an important impact on their life and times even as they are influenced by the other factors which influence history.

Whether we live in the middle of a desert, on a mountaintop or at the confluence of great rivers is another determining factor. The financial impact of an individual or the prosperity of a nation may be yet another. Our pledge of allegiance may be yet another. Our pledge of allegiance includes the phrase "one nation, under God," and certainly our forefathers believed that God is another important factor in determining the course of our lives as well as our nation's history.

Sometimes those who pose as experts are not the best qualified to serve as authorities. At times it seems that those who have had the least success in marital matters emphasize their expertise in family values. Then again, the best lecture I've heard on child care was given by a bachelor who never had the experience of trying to guide a group of screaming children into a harmonious and loving relationship.

How important is integrity in determining the course of a nation's history? Do honesty and truthfulness have a role to play, or is Honest Abe only a leftover legend of the past? Do we believe everything we hear? How can we be sure?

If we believe only in humanistic materialism or secular goals, our options are limited. Does not God have any influence in determining the course of history in our land of the free and home of the brave? In our democracy we do have total freedom through the election process to express our choices for those whom we believe will best determine the course of our history in the future. By the choices we make, we too are contributing to the course of history.

I am still old-fashioned enough to listen to the words of Sidney Lanier:

As the marsh-hen secretly builds on the watery sod,

Behold I will build me a nest on the greatness of God.

May we choose wisely those who will determine the course of our history.

IVAN H. NOTHDURFT

Cape Girardeau