Who Is Ken Burns?

            My VIP for this week is historian and documentary filmmaker Ken Burns. I chose him for two reasons with the first being that we are living “in the worst of times” in America.

A second reason for choosing Burns is his statement about these times in the “SmartLess” podcast, hosted by Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes. The podcast was a comparison of current events with other serious crises in our nation – the Civil War, the Depression, and World War II. This is the statement: “It’s really serious. There are three great crises before this: the Civil War, the Depression, and World War II. This is equal to it.” 

            That is quite a statement. I have long believed that Joe Biden is a disaster for America, but I had not considered our situation to be as serious as the Civil War or the Great Depression or World War II. – yet. According to Burns, our nation is headed in the wrong direction. To support his statement, he quoted Abraham Lincoln from a January 1838 made to a group in Springfield, Missouri.

From whence shall we expect the approach of danger? Shall some trans-Atlantic military giant step the earth and crush us at a blow? Never. All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa could not by force take a drink from the Ohio River or make a track on the Blue Ridge in the trial of a thousand years. No, if destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men, we will live forever or die by suicide.

            Burns concluded by saying, “We’re looking right down the muzzle of that gun.”

In other words, Burns believes that America is on the verge of committing suicide and agrees with Lincoln’s statement that America will last forever unless it kills itself. Lincoln was correct when stating that America is stronger than all the “armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa” combined, but this is true only when America is strong. The Biden administration has weakened America: did away with our oil independence, overwhelmed our system with more than a million migrants crossing into the nation illegally, destroyed relationships with allies, emboldened enemies, and wrecked the economy with bad policies. Biden is a weak leader who is destroying the strength of the nation.

We know that elections have consequences, and the policies of Biden administration have brought America to her knees. If we can believe that Biden received eighty million votes, it looks like the majority of Americans chose to kill America rather than to re-elect Donald Trump, a president who made America stronger. Prophets warned of such a danger.

            Prophets of God wrote the material contained in the Book of Mormon – Another Testament of Jesus Christ for our day. As I study the book, it seems that I am reading of current events in our nation today. One of the authors in the Book of Mormon warned us about what happens when the majority of the people chooses evil.

Now it is not common that the voice of the people desireth anything contrary to that which is right; but it is common for the lesser part of the people to desire that which is not right; therefore this shall ye observe and make it your law – to do your business by the voice of the people.

And if the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you; yea, then is the time he will visit you with great destruction even as he has hitherto visited this land (Mosiah 29:26-27).

            The current conditions in America show that the so-called majority of Americans chose iniquity when they voted for Biden. I hope that this is not true and that there was enough voter fraud to sway the election. I have faith in my fellow Americans, believing that most Americans are still good people. Hopefully, enough good Americans will defend America and its Constitution long enough to survive the Biden administration and regain our national strength.