Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 14, 1993 TAG: 9304140320
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By CHOW-SOON CHUANG JU
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
NATIONAL RENEWAL
"NOT CHANGE for change's sake, but change to preserve America's ideal - life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness."We heard these words in the inaugural address of President Clinto. He repeated the words "renewal," "reborn," "renew," "reform," "rebuild" and "rededicate" many times.
The message to the people of the United States is the conservation, not destruction, of our nation and history. We are going to change for better, of course, not for worse. The foundation and framework of our country have been the most idealistic, so far as we know now.
In comparison with world history, however, our 200-year-old history seems short and novel, and we have a long way to go. We, the people of the United States, may have the potential for building a great country on Earth if all of us work in unity.
Thomas Jefferson believed that "to preserve the very foundation of our nation, we would need dramatic change from time to time." This is another message from Clinton's inaugural address.
Conserving our nation and history requires renovations from time to time, but how to preserve the old frame and make it compatible with the 21st-century world seems not so easy.
It is often easier for a builder to build a brand new house than to renovate an old house with missing parts and deterioration, and sometimes obsolescence. There is often much in old buildings or at historic sites that we want to keep just for sentiment or human emotion, and these things are usually a part of our culture and history.
On the other hand, for a good reason, descendants of prominent families, heirs to great wealth, often hesitate to keep the mansion house or the high-rise or large building; maintaining it may cost more than the fortune. Let us think it over, with reason or with emotion, that we have to change our country.
Social issues and economic conditions already have changed. As we rebuild or renovate our society, to what degree can we still call ourselves Americans?
President Lincoln called the nation to free the slaves for a unity based on the patriotism. More than 100 years later, President Clinton is calling on Americans to sacrifice for our nation, based on patriotism too.
Is this the renewal of our past? Didn't Presidents Reagan and Bush and even Carter also call on Americans to sacrifice ourselves for our nation, based on patriotism?
If every four years the president calls us to rededicate ourselves to the idea of the American, to sacrifice ourselves for patriotism, what we have to change is not change. Let everyone separate one's own reason from one's own emotion once in a while, and we will realize that our nation is very young, and we have a long way to go.
Chow-Soon Chuang Ju lives in Lexington and is author of a book, "Beyond the Good Earth."