Freedom

The Light Bulb family is on vacation all week visiting, among others, my dear brother and sister-in-law in Missouri. Well, we couldn't visit the Show Me state with grade-school children and not see the Gateway Arch, also known by its official name as the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. As we explained to the little Light Bulbs, the arch represents our nation's expansion westward. It's the symbolic door through which we as a nation walked on our journey west.


Eero Saarinen's design, a stainless steel catenary arch covering reinforced concrete, represents (at least to me) the strength our growing nation would seek and develop by being a freedom-preserving democracy. Wind will not fell it, nor will rust corrode it. The same is true for our democracy. There is little chance that outside elements could destroy the United States. But destruction from within is an unfortunate possibility.

I apprehend no danger to our country from a foreign foe... Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from another quarter. From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and negligence, I must confess that I do apprehend some danger.
— Daniel Webster