PROGRESS

"NOT TO GO BACK IS TO SOMEWHAT ADVANCE." THOSE WHO CHOOSE TO PESSIMISTICALLY SEE THE CUP OF PROGRESS AS HALF EMPTY WOULD BE HELPED TO REMEMBER THE SINS OF CIVILIZATIONS’ PAST. EMPERORS, KINGS, PIRATES, PEOPLE AND POPES MURDERED AND SINNED. AFTER HE CRUEL RIENZI, TRIBUNE AND DICTATOR OF ROME WAS ASSASSINATED, HE WAS HUNG BY THE FEET. HE WAS SO FAT "HE LOOKED LIKE A HUGE BUFFALO OR COW AT THE BUTCHER'S," ACCORDING TO A CHRONICLER OF THE TIMES. GOOD RIDDANCE TO ONE MADMAN IN THE MIDDLE AGES, HOWEVER, DID NOT ASSURE A BENIGN SUCCESSOR. THE VISCONTI FAMILY, RULERS OF MILAN ALSO TYPIFIED THE BLOOD THIRSTY CULTURE OF THE MIDDLE AGES. ONE DESPOTIC MEMBER EVEN HUNTED MEN WITH DOGS AT NIGHT. THE VISCONTI BANNER PICTURED A VIPER FROM WHOSE OPEN JAWS A NAKED CHILD HAD JUST EMERGED. DID THE CHILD REPRESENT THE BIRTH OF ANOTHER FIEND OR DID IT SIGNIFY HOW THE ROYAL DESPOT WOULD ENGORGE HIS SUBJECTS? THANKFULLY, HUMANITY CAN NEVER REGRESS A THOUSAND YEARS, EVEN THOUGH WE SOMETIMES SEEM TO BE STAGNATING TODAY.

A MERE 300 YEARS AGO, ALEXANDER POPE REMINDED US THAT "NOT TO GO BACK IS TO SOMEWHAT ADVANCE." ON THIS LABOR DAY HOLIDAY, AN EXCUSE TO ABSCOND FROM WORK, LET'S REMEMBER HOW FAR THE LEADERS AND THE WORKERS OF THE WORLD HAVE COME. ALL WHO HAVE LABORED CAN REST IN THE KNOWLEDGE THAT AMERICA'S (AND THE WORLD'S) CUP IS OPTIMISTICALLY HALF FULL.