American Train Ride
There was this little rush of
anticipation I was experiencing as my wife Becky was driving me to the Amtrak
Station in Midtown Atlanta. Part of the
excitement was childish residue from memories of riding the train as a young
boy. Part was from the uncertainty of what was to unfold around the big rally
planned in Washington DC on 8/28/2010.
My imagination was trying to run in varied directions - one which was of
a full train of the event participants who would most certainly contribute to a
gathering of magnitude the likes our capital has never seen. Another thought
path considered the opposite. That left leaning travelers on their way to pose
a counterbalance would dampen the spirit of the moment. When I entered the station I noticed what I
never considered. The bulk of the riders
were the - business as usual - type that one might find at that station
on any other Friday evening; mostly African Americans in route and on routine.
My evolving
state of euphoria was abridged the moment I walked through the doors of the
Peachtree Road Building. The TV was
tuned to CNN. It was a good news - bad
news situation. They were talking about
Glenn Beck’s 8/28 Rally. They were
interviewing Al Sharpton. It was at this
point that the message from this journey of mine began to take form. The sharp contrast of the motives of the
conservative majority of our nation and the motives of the liberal left were
already in plain view.
My colorful childlike memories of
train stations past were supplanted by a cold black and white of what I would
have expected from a bus station. There
was an air of bored complacency waiting to cycle down into despair at any
moment with Sharpton’s resentful rants offering background noise. I could not really discern who the rally
travelers were unless I wanted to use a racial template. Later I learned that I could have used that
template to point out who was going to Washington to take part in the next
great event in a wave of spiritual awakening in our land.
People get ready
There's a train a-coming
You don't need no baggage
You just get on board
All you need is faith
To hear the diesels humming
Don't need no ticket
You just thank the Lord……
There's a train a-coming
You don't need no baggage
You just get on board
All you need is faith
To hear the diesels humming
Don't need no ticket
You just thank the Lord……
Curtis Mayfield
Struggle as I might to write without a
negative bent, I must face reality and my reality tells me things are looking
bleak. The train ride was cold…literally
cold. One of the catalysts of my initial
enthusiasm was the Amtrak publication that I read prior to the trip: full color
pictures of glimmering trains moving across a spectacularly scenic
America. The magazine had the
information I needed to take advantage of all the great amenities this service
offered; the romance of interstate travel on our great country’s original
transcontinental mode of movement - the engine of the industrial age. Then the reality set in. Amtrak is owned by the Government of the
USA. There is no hospitality and there
are no amenities. It is beaurocracy in
your face! Did I mention how cold it
was? It is the temperature business owners set their thermostats to when an IRS
agent visits to audit them. I thought
maybe they wanted me to get off at the next empty station. When I finally fell asleep I had a nightmare
that Obamacare had finally kicked in and I was in an emergency waiting room on
an Amtrak train. It couldn’t be
hell. It was too cold!
Thank God for the sunlight, the
Virginia countryside and hot coffee!
There is a certain peace that comes when one realizes that they have
survived or passed through discomfort and conflict. I had that peace Saturday morning August 28,
2010. I was confident that what lie
ahead at the steps of The Lincoln Memorial would be worth any tribulation endured.
The beauty of the old Virginia
farmhouses shimmering in a foggy morning mist screamed at us for a return to
simpler times when truth had meaning for most people. There were two hot air
balloons hanging above the valley in Charlottesville, home of UVA, a university
started by a founding father, Thomas Jefferson.
Through the window of the rushing train car they seemed to levitate in
space. One was in red, white and blue
colors. Coming ever closer to our
destination we stopped in Manassas. Here
in this town there was a farmer’s market bustling across the street. There I
saw Americans exercising their freedom so afforded them by our sacred founding
documents made possible by colonists’ ultimate sacrifice during a revolutionary
war. Just a short distance away another
battlefield where the first major land battle of our pivotal American Civil War
took place. The train charged ahead
carrying us to our ultimate destination on the National Mall.
“The light shines in the darkness but the darkness has not
understood it.”
John 1:5
We arrived at Union Station ahead of
schedule and it must be said that of all the disappointments of the Amtrak
experience previously encountered the engineers more than did their job. The train departed Atlanta late but arrived
Washington early. I had looked at the DC
Metro rail map and decided to approach the rally from the north side of the
Lincoln Memorial instead of from the east, since the crowd would stretch from
west to east. The first noticeable
element of the environment in Union Station was the buzz of anticipation. The Atlanta station’s submissive environment
had been replaced by one with a hurried pace.
All of a sudden there was no doubt as to the intention of this
crowd. The start of the program was
minutes away as was the target site.
The crowd coming up from Foggy Bottom station validated my motives
for being there. It was a large crowd
with cause to be stressed but it’s character remained patiently assured,
steadfast in faith. We were caught in a
gently flowing current brushed by the hand of providence. Our road ran smack
into the north wall of the majestic landmark behind the stage and we could hear
the real voice of Sarah Palin and take in a literal breath of fresh air and let
go a sigh of relief. And she said “We must not fundamentally transform America
as some would want. We must restore America and restore her honor.”
That moment as I stood on the steps of
the Lincoln Memorial looking out towards the Washington Monument over the
splendid sun splashed crowd I felt a wave of emotion well up and knew our
journey had been validated. It was a
huge crowd enveloped by a mood best described as contented composed
calmness. Grace like a down comforter
enveloped all of us.
I wandered about the masses with the
desire for a better understanding and meaning of what was taking place. I observed.
I took photographs. I wondered if
I could ever justifiably describe what was happening. I sat down in the grass
and listened. Tears rolled down my
cheeks. Would this effort have the power
to stem the tide of Godless anger and resentment that would divide our land and
destroy our liberty?
Ronald Reagan 1983
Many
of us were in Washington a year ago for the 9/12 march. Then we were protesting the impending health
care legislation, what we now call “Obamacare”.
Last year the energy of the crowd was focused on letting our lawmakers
know that there was significant opposition to the proposed bill specifically
and Government’s intrusion in our lives generally. In the year since we have learned that the
Government is not concerned with the “Will of the People”. This year the crowd was twice the size of that
event, which in one man’s opinion shows that a Spiritual Awakening is occurring.
As has been preached in at least one southern pulpit by Andy Stanley, national
morality cannot prevail in exclusion of religious principal. There can be no
moral consensus in our national conscience without divine accountability. The
fact that this year there were no signs and no overt chanting protestations
would speak to the knowledge that we need God in our lives. If there was a protest going on during 8/28
it was about stopping the active removal of God from the sacred institutions
created by the Divine Providence of our founding documents: The Declaration of
Independence and The US Constitution.
John F. Kennedy Inaugural Address January 20, 1961
After the program had ended I visited the Jefferson Memorial for the first time. On one of the walls I found this simple question. “Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are a gift of God?” My answer is no they can’t. I would suggest that the people in the gathering on the Mall this fine August day would answer the same way. So what now? Where do we go from here? My belief is: that if each of us who were blessed by having had the opportunity to be a part of 8/28 takes the message to others, that if we maintain a vigilant conviction to the idea that our Country was founded by Divine Providence, maybe we stem the tide of malevolence that would tear down all the goodness that has marked this Nation since it’s inception. I pray that this story and these words are precious cargo in the freight car that brings the message to every station in the land. All Aboard!
“If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth.”
RONALD REAGAN, October 27, 1964
Amen America
Bradford Bosworth
June 2016
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