‘The American Destiny’
Every evening there is a haunting train whistle that breaks the silence of the night as it passes through the cities and towns of America.
That stirring call is followed by clanging bells and a rising thunderous rumble announcing the arrival of an emblematic passenger train called The American Destiny.
Powered by hope generated from the imagination and inspiration of its passengers, this train travels the railway of time dropping off some ticket holders and picking up new ones along the way.
Jonathan Edwards was thankful he could ride, but his heart was burdened for the soul of every passenger on the journey. As Noah Webster rode he was always looking for better ways to describe what he saw.
Betsy Ross took an aisle seat and quietly stitched together the first American flag.
As the train passed through Philadelphia 56 men riding the rail signed The Declaration that changed the world!
But not everyone has been welcome to ride The American Destiny.
The tragic tale of millions who have been blocked at the turnstiles is a disgraceful legacy written on far too many platforms as the tracks stretch out across our Nation’s history.
Chief Joseph, leader of the Nez Perce, located in the Wallowa Valley of northeastern Oregon, was forbidden from taking a seat by those who assumed that Native Americans didn’t deserve to ride into the future.
Chief Joseph rode another train; the unheated train that took him and 400 of his remaining followers to Leavenworth in Kansas where most of them perished.
Harriet Beecher Stow thoughtfully looked out her window and saw an enslaved multitude, all of whom were denied a boarding pass and legally had no right to complain. Moved by what she saw, she penned a classic novel that thousands of other travelers would eventually read.
Though it took many years, The American Destiny now tends to accommodate a very diverse group of passengers.
One inventive traveler named George Eastman couldn’t wait to show the world the colorful images he beheld from his window.
Frank Lloyd Wright, with a sketch pad in hand, envisioned something entirely different.
FDR boarded at the Great Depression, rode through the Second World War, continued to Warm Springs Georgia, and then finally was escorted to Washington D.C. Louie Armstrong traveled from Storyville to Broadway and filled the cars with his music along the way! Many years later, passengers can still be heard humming his melodies.
Walt Disney put his ear to the track in Marceline, Missouri, and purchased a ticket with a dream.
He boarded the train and optimistically told the conductor “With every laugh there should be a tear.”
Walt rode further than anyone could have ever imagined!
He stepped off the train much too soon, but inspired a multitude of others to purchase a fare.
Ronald Reagan rode from Dixon Illinois to Hollywood, and eventually to the White House. Martin Luther King calmly took a front seat in Selma, Alabama, but sadly, he only traveled as far as the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
Christa McAuliffe journeyed from a classroom in Concord, New Hampshire, to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral where, only a short time later, “Waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God.”
Today there may be some who see this train as motionless, a rusting relic of the past, parked in overgrown terrain, a victim of the elements and the ravages of time, producing only an eerie whistle echoing from the past. That dour view of the future reflects what one former passenger referred to as the ‘fractured physics of humanity.’
Personally, I am more concerned that the depot on Capitol Hill has often attempted to detour the train and perform unnecessary maintenance that would require taking The American Destiny completely off the tracks.
The truth is, that if you consider the history of The American Destiny, the more passengers that ride, and the more miles that are logged, the better this train runs!
So don’t forget, tonight, somewhere in the evening shadows, you’ll hear a whistle, the clanking of couplings and the rumble of a remarkable locomotive, still furnished with plenty of empty seats. You can purchase the fare, with a dream, or a wish, or a prayer.
Larry Douglas is a resident of Waynesburg.