Like most people, in my youth, I saw the world as filled only with pleasures. Age, coupled with knowledge, clarified that vision. There’s always a challenge waiting around the next corner. The United States certainly has traveled its own obstacle course; the credit and Wall Street crises are the latest hindrances.
Recently, while reflecting on two flatboat trips taken by Ronald Drake, I was reminded of America’s difficult history and how it has moved ahead even when some may have thought the country doomed.
A former Indiana state legislator and District lawyer best known for his fearless and tireless defense of children with special needs, Drake decided in 2006 to build a flatboat. Using it, he replicated a trip taken in 1810 by his ancestor Closs Thompson.
Despite being a Revolutionary War veteran, Thompson was having a difficult time finding land to call his own. So he and his family pushed off from the confluence of the Little Miami and Ohio rivers. They traveled through grueling conditions up the Mississippi River, landing in Cape Girardeau, Mo.
Drake’s re-enactment had its own physical discomforts. But it brought him great emotional satisfaction.
Last month, he retraced Abraham Lincoln’s 1828 flatboat trip from Indiana to New Orleans; the journey was part of the bicentennial celebration of the president’s birth.
The Thompsons and Lincolns were connected by desire, location and religion. Lincoln’s family, also searching for a home, traveled from Kentucky to Indiana, where Jeremiah Thompson, Closs’ son, had settled. Both families were Primitive Baptists. Drake’s father, Elder Mervyn Drake, often preached at Little Pigeon Church, which Lincoln’s family had attended.
Lincoln and the Thompsons were tough people not intimidated by perilous conditions. Those traits, while admirable, weren’t the sole reason for their success. Kind and generous citizens came to their aid, rescuing them from life-threatening events and welcoming them into their homes, sharing meager meals and ample hope.
Interestingly, strangers were as generous and kind to Drake as they were to the Thompsons and to Lincoln nearly 200 years earlier. There were dignitaries in Osceola who provided a dockside dinner. In Lake Providence, La., a young Mennonite woman brought fresh baked bread to welcome the crew.
Drake’s daily blog also describes a veteran at the Mount Vernon, Ind., American Legion Hall who, unbeknownst to Drake, bought an American flag for him to hang on the flatboat. The veteran left the hall before thanks could be offered. Perhaps he believed the gift its own reward.
When I consider Congress’ approval of a $700 billion bailout of Wall Street, look at the ever-expanding unemployment lines and see homes with foreclosure signs out front, I think of the Thompsons, Lincolns and Drake. Their stories and those of ordinary citizens inspiring each other tell me not to worry. America will pull through this latest trouble. After all, its strength really is its people — flawed as we all are.
