A column by Will Alexander today referenced the following poem used by Winston Churchill as World War 2 loomed ahead for Great Britain.
Written by Edward Milliken in Punch magazine about a tragic railway accident in the 19th century, here is a shortened version.
“Who is in charge of the clattering train?
The axles creak and the couplings strain;
The axles creak and the couplings strain;
The axles creak and the couplings strain;
And the signals flash through the night in vain,
For The axles creak and the couplings strain;
For Death is in charge of the clattering train.
This aptly describes my America as we close on the end of the 4th month of Joe Biden’s* Presidency. If we look at the analogy of the nation as a ‘clattering train’ moving through the 21st century, we can see the train of our national life is heading for certain disaster if we do nothing to prevent the calamity ahead.
Parallels abound. We have weakness abroad as nations have taken their assessment of the American President* and found him wanting. China has insulted us in a meeting in Alaska, Biden* insulted the Russian President by calling him a killer on national television, China continues to be an aggressor in the South China Sea, and Israel was snubbed at the beginning of the administration. In addition, our standing in the Middle East has taken a beating, as signals out of Washington indicate Biden’s* willingness to reengage in the disastrous Iranian nuclear ‘deal’, and it has been bruited about that he is thinking of ransoming four prisoners in that country with 7 billion of our dollars. Even the North Koreans, held on a short lease by the previous President, Donald Trump, flipped off Biden* by refusing to hold even low-level talks with our diplomats.
“And the signals flash through the night in vain,” as we careen from crisis to crisis in foreign relations, while sensible voices futilely try to change the coming disaster.
More stresses in our national fabric are seen in our monetary policy. April’s jobs report was woefully underperforming. Three quarters of a million jobs created were expected, but not found. In addition, inflation, held in check by the previous two administrations is gathering steam. This index of our economic life increased at a faster pace not seen since 2008, and one metric from 1981 was exceeded. That is Jimmy Carter era on steroids, to paraphrase Joe Biden*. Our national debt has ballooned because of a $1.9 trillion bill to supposedly blunt the effects of the pandemic, and the administration of the *President has two more such bills in the works, making the total of his wish list of spending about $6 trillion dollars. O, for the days of Everitt Dirkson, who famously quipped in the 1960s, ‘A billion here, a billion there, and soon you are talking about real money!’
In economic terms, “The axles creak and the couplings strain”, who is in charge of this clattering train?
On our Southern border, disaster is taking place. The largest influx of illegal aliens since the 1990s is a reality. Unaccompanied minors are being held in record numbers, and multiple thousands have so overwhelmed the Border Patrol that they have been released into the country with no court date for their cases to be heard. All this is in addition to the thousands who sneak into the nation without being ‘caught and released’. President Biden* made the promise to open the borders when he as campaigning for the office, and these migrants, most from the Northern Triangle of Central America, will drain the coffers of our social system as they apply for the ‘benefits’ of being in the U. S. To show his affinity for illegals, Biden* invited six of them into the White House, while stating to other citizens that his ‘rule’ was to continue to wear masks or else. Texas Law Enforcement claims to have been overwhelmed by the increase of illegals across the Rio Grande.
With thousands of those illegally entering this nation, we wonder as “The axles creak and the couplings strain;”, when the wheels will come off this clattering train.
Much more can be said about the abortion issue, the push to have Critical Race Theory placed into our schools, the mad rush to normalize transgenderism, the push to outlaw voter identification, but the picture could not be clearer. For our national life, we fear that “ Death is in charge of the clattering train.”