Through the Lens of History

In addition to being “fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness,” as Mark Twain famously observed, travel has a way of providing a sharper perspective on one’s own country.

Recently, as Brigitte and I spent three weeks traveling throughout western and central Turkey, from Istanbul, Ephesus, Pergamum, Assos, Troy, Gallipoli, and Cappadocia, I couldn’t help but think how young the U.S. is compared to this storied land and wonder how we will be viewed over time.

We visited ruins dating back to 1700 B.C. and beyond when the Hittites swept across the steppes of Asia Minor and ruled for more than 300 years, to be followed by a series of conquerors, including the Phrygians, Greeks, Romans, Persians, Mongols, Seljuks, and finally the Ottoman Turks whose empire lasted from 1453 until the early part of the 20th century.

Contrast these with the 235-year history of the United States which only became a world power starting in the early 20th century, barely 100 years ago -- about the same time as the Turkish Republic was established after the breakup of the Ottoman Empire following World War I.

Throughout the trip, whether it was gazing in wonder at the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque in Istanbul or the ruins at Ephesus or Cappadocia, I kept thinking to myself: What will happen when the U.S. “empire” falls and is superseded by another -- an eventuality that will almost certainly happen, if history is any reliable guide. Closer to our own time, just think of the British Empire, once so extensive that it was said the sun never set on it.

When our time comes, will the U.S. settle into a reduced world status, as did Great Britain and France, while trying to remain faithful to its core ideals? And centuries hence, when archeologists unearth the ruins of the U.S. Capitol, the White House, or the Statue of Liberty, will these be reminders that the United States was once a great world power, whose main source of power lay not in its might but in its ideals?

Will they remember us as the “shining city on a hill” that welcomed and embraced “the tired, the poor, the huddled masses” from other lands “yearning to breathe free?” Will they remember us as a country which established a social contract with its own people that went beyond the constitutional rights of free speech and freedom of worship to include freedom from fear and want in order to care for the least among us who cannot take care of themselves?

I would like to think so, but with our social contract under attack, the income gap between rich and poor increasing and with hunger and poverty on the rise, one has reason to doubt. This plus the mean-spirited immigration policies and measures being imposed by some states along our border to the south makes one wonder whether the lights in that shining city on the hill are not already beginning to dim.

Gerald E. Lavey