For several hours last week, I dealt with fear and uncertainty. Thanks to the calming, expert assistance of the Chattanooga Police Department, the situation resolved, and I was at peace.
Our nation faces a far more serious and protracted combination of fear and uncertainty as we deal with the coronavirus epidemic. History offers examples of leaders who reassured a troubled population at such times.
Abraham Lincoln delivered his second Inaugural Address on March 3, 1865, 41 days before his assassination. As four years of devastating, civil war drew to a close, the future remained clouded. Would revenge dominate post-war policies? What would be the status of supporters of the Confederacy? Could the nation ever reunite?
Lincoln concluded his brief speech: “With malice toward none, with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”
On March 12, 1933, eight days following his inauguration, Franklin Roosevelt delivered by radio the first of his “fireside chats.” Banks had closed nationwide nine days earlier, and our entire financial system seemed on the brink of collapse.