“Some see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not.”

- Robert Kennedy

Once Upon a Time…there were notions of decency in this country that transcended partisanship and ideology.

Once Upon a Time…the right of everyone to be heard was respected, even by those who disagreed with the speaker.

Once Upon a Time…respect for the offices of our leaders trumped mob mentality.

Once Upon a Time…the actions of our leaders warranted the respect they were accorded.

Once Upon a Time…those who left flesh overseas fighting the country’s wars were not vitiated during political campaigns and accused of coddling America’s adversaries.

Once Upon a Time…those not directly confronting the enemy sacrificed at home and put their efforts into supporting those dying in distant lands.

One upon a time…the return of a coffin from a far-off conflict was an occasion for National mourning, not an event to be hidden from the public eye.

Once Upon a Time…cowards who somehow managed to skip out on even the cushiest of stateside commitments while their fellow Americans gave their “last full measure of devotion” in the rice paddies and jungles of Southeast Asia were not idolized as great Americans.

Once Upon a Time…we were challenged, as a Nation, to reach for the stars.

Once Upon a Time…there were lines that were not crossed in American politics.

Once Upon a Time…there were political crimes that demanded courageous responses, regardless of the sacrifices involved, and there were brave Americans who took up the gauntlet.

Once Upon a Time…our journalism industry sought to report the Truth, not parrot lies fed them by self-serving politicians.

Once Upon a Time…we guided our treatment of others by the same standards to which we would expect them to adhere.

Once Upon a Time…we had political leaders brave enough to sacrifice their positions, even their careers, in order to avoid the taint of association with morally repugnant policies.

Once Upon a Time…that which is immoral was not given the whitewash cover of spurious legal opinion.

Once Upon a Time…we believed in idividual accountability.

Once Upon a Time…some of our greatest entertainers considered it their responsibility to sing anthems of protest against injustice rather than cashing in on lucrative commercial deals.

Once Upon a Time…there was a thing known as true patriotism, elevating the public interest over everything else.

Once Upon a Time…even personal profit was subjugated to doing that which was right for the country.

Once Upon a Time…racism was considered an evil to be resisted, not something to be directed at the President of the United States.

Once Upon a Time…we had dreams – dreams of equality; dreams of justice; dreams of swelling “the chorus of the Union by the better angels of our nature.”

Once Upon a Time…we were challenged to live up to the standard, “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

But that was Once Upon a Time, and somewhere along the way we lost our belief in fairy tales.