It is easy -- actually very easy -- to look at today's world and wonder if we are near the end of times.
If you want to believe that way, there are ample signs in virtually every aspect of our lives that would convince you that time is running short on civilization as we know it.
Look anywhere. Chaos reigns around the world and especially at home.
The institutions and policies that have guided this great nation are under assault. Though we have always had divisions on political and social issues, those divisions are growing wider each day with no end in sight.
History clearly illustrates that hot spots around the globe have always been present. But multiple hot spots with increasing friction draw us closer to a global conflict unlike any in the history of mankind.
In our little corner of the world, many of these growing concerns seem distant and without any clear or present danger to us and our families.
But though we are sheltered from the urban chaos of social unrest, we are not immune.
Unrest in any form is like a cancer that grows slowly and quietly. And like that cancer, a cure is more illusive and more dangerous than we would hope.
Many of us believed that a major change in the political climate here would usher in a new era of sanity and cooperation after years of self-inflicted turmoil and disruption.
We were wrong.
We were wrong because leadership is but one element. Cooperation and consensus and compromise are just words regardless of the leadership steering the ship of state.
I can only assume that the national mindset at the dawn of World War II was just as concerning as it is today. As a nation, we were called to defend democracy in distant lands and we knew that the bloodshed would involve American lives.
Today similar conflicts threaten to create a dismal scenario that could well rival that tragic time in world history.
But here at home, we add another element to this growing national concern. Internal conflict over social issues is perhaps more a threat than the conflicts we may well face elsewhere.
And at least to me, it's these internal conflicts that pose a greater problem.
Here is the point of this entire discussion.
I see no avenue out of these internal conflicts. None whatsoever.
I am fearful we have reached a point where the divisions are so great and so equally divided that the road ahead looks bleak at best.
Through close inspection, there is a path out of some of the international conflicts.
But these internal disruptions are a different animal.
Maybe the end of time is closer than we expect.
As had been often repeated, "We have met the enemy and he is us."