Defeating Our Enemies

Tom discusses big enemies that the United States has defeated in the past, and what it will take to defeat the current enemy we are up against: the corona virus. How will history look back on this time in our country?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I heard radio presents Tom Broke off now here. This
Let's be honest, This coronavirus curse is not a summer passage.
One expert after another expects a second wave sometimes this fall,
maybe a bit later. But President Trump is persuaded that
schools can't open, businesses can resume, life can go on,

(00:24):
and by next spring will be what we once were,
a very prosperous economy. Pardon my skepticism. If only he
can be right. But I'm listening to the experts in
the field of coronavirus, also in the economy and in
social behavior. Some states are going their own way, apparently successfully.

(00:45):
Arkansas seems to be the best example. It's kept open
a lot of the public agencies and commerce with strict
rules about behavior and space and monitoring. But if there
is a second wave, will Arkansas hold up? I hope so,
But certainly, as we have learned, there are no guarantees,
and the great flu epidemic of nineteen eighteen in many

(01:08):
places the second wave was terrifying. So let's try to
find a reason to cheer today. This weekend, we commemorate
the end of World War two in Europe with japan
surrender not long after. More than fifty million, maybe sixty
million people perished in that terrible war, the Holocaust Hitler's demented,

(01:31):
maniacal attempt to wipe out the Jewish race. Europe left
in shambles, Japan leveled by a nuclear bomb and then
a second one, but through alliances and genius and grit,
the world was restored. I was living on an army
base when the war ended. I was five years old.

(01:53):
I remember it very well because I thought the war
would go on forever. After all, it was everything that
I had known in my five years. But then it
was over, and the celebration of the streets in a
small town in western South Dakota was cheering and overwhelming
for someone my age. And then as I came of age,

(02:16):
I caught the wave of opportunity and reward from a
great depression to a great boom. My parents were not
college graduates, but they were very resourceful, and there were
beneficiaries of the building boom. Really, a lot of it
was sponsored by the federal government. So we moved to
the central part of South Dakota on one of the

(02:37):
largest dams in the world, blocking the Missouri River from
future flooding. It went on for ten years. A town
called Pickstown. Three thousand people moved in almost overnight, most
of them blue collar people because it was that kind
of a project. My generation after that went on to college,

(03:00):
and almost everyone I knew got jobs, even when our
parents had no experience for the college education. Big companies IBM,
General Electric, General Motors were paying well with guarantees that
you will have a successful retirement at some point as well.
But then in the midst of all this, we had Vietnam,

(03:21):
one of the great disasters of not just my lifetime
but of American history, more than fifty thousand young Americans
side and that will begotten war. We had at home
the racial upheaval, which was long overdue, African Americans demanding
their rightful place in this country and all the rights
that go with it. But next came cyber technology. Bill Gates,

(03:46):
Steam Jobs, the genius of the technology that has changed
everything we do, from commerce, to communication, to education and medicine.
How and when we will emerge from this current master
is not yet clear. We will be different, but will
not be defeated. The genius of this immigrant nation is

(04:09):
on display every day, and how we're dealing with this
unparalleled crisis. It is on display in medical systems, it's
on display in hospitals. It's on display as well with
the scientists who tell us what's going on and trying
desperately now to come up with some kind of a cure,
as some knockout of this coronavirus. We will be different

(04:31):
after all of this. How I cannot yet say how
different and what form remains an open question. But as
it always does in America, it will depend on all
of us. We're in the midst of a presidential election.
There are, as you might expect from, very strong feelings
on both sides. The important thing is whoever wins the

(04:54):
election will have to pull this country together, whoever win
this election, and not use the White House as too
often the president has to divide the country. This is
a time for all of us to be greater than
the some of our parts. It is the greatest test
of our modern age. Historians will be writing about this

(05:15):
five hundred years from now, a thousand years from now,
and what will they say about the greatest democracy in
the history of mankind, the greatest economic opportunity in the
history of mankind, the greatest cultural statement in the history
of mankind? What will historians say about how we reacted,
how we dealt with it? Were we more than some

(05:38):
of our parts? That's always been the great, great goal
for America, and we have met it and succeeded in
the past. Will we do so again? The history of
this country is being written as you and I are
now involved in the new realities. As you listen to me. Now,

(05:58):
what I am doing and what you were doing, is
that we are writing history for future historians. I hope
they can look back and say they were not just
up to the job. They exceeded the expectations of all
of us and all of their fellow countrymen who have
come from all over the world to be a part

(06:20):
of this great nation and all of its laws. And
now this extraordinary test, were they up to it? I
am a pure product of America. My parents were working class.
I got a college education and a great job. I've
always been proud that I was able to do what

(06:41):
I did, but I was always aware of the fact
that I could only do it in this country with
the hope of my fellow citizens. That is the great
challenge for all of us. I know we're up to it,
let's get going. I'm Tom brokaw now Here, this