July 13, 2024

 Just a few days ago, I wrote about July 4, and what a disaster this nation has become. There are drugs and crime rampant on the streets, homeless encampments everywhere, and rampant inflation. The country was in decline, and no one seemed to know what to do about it.

Most of you don't remember, but we'd gone through this over forty years ago. Jimmy Carter was the president, the country was in decline, and inflation was rampant. No one seemed to know what to do about it.

About that time, a man named Reagan was elected to the presidency. Somewhere, no one is sure where, the mood of the country turned around, and the country magically turned around, ushering in three decades of prosperity. Crime declined, the economy boomed, people prospered. Jet travel exploded, technology exploded, yet no one seems to remember this. It was a watershed moment in history when the mood of the country turned around, and yet no one could say what that point was, when that turn occurred, what event  or sequence of events caused it. 

Looking back I don't think it was one thing, it was a sequence, but the magical thing was we had a leader. We had someone who was tough when he needed to be, but also had humor and knew how to get along with people. Reagan was the magic to turn things around. That, and he know how to get things done. And he didn't really take crap from anyone. When the air traffic controllers went on strike, He fired them. All of them. He was telling everyone, I don't care how important you are, when you try to hold the American people hostage, when you try to extort us, you're history. That was the last time anybody tried to mess with the air traffic control system of the United States. I was thinking about that when I was flying over Europe a while back, and we had to circle for hours because of a local ATC strike. Not fun.

But if anyone asks, "What was the event that turned it around this time?" It should be fairly obvious, that the answer's going to be, July 13, 2024.