Almost two years after the Watergate burglary, Richard Nixon resigned as President on this day, August 8, in 1974. In the fifty years since that time, we avoided any similar danger and tragedy, at least until the term of President 45, whose name doesn’t need or deserve to be mentioned. Financial verdicts have gone against him again and gain, and so far, despite felony convictions, he has avoided the consequences of his misdeeds, but as Nixon’s case proved, the wheels of justice do indeed turn slowly.
Like MLK’s phrase, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,” karma should ultimately deliver its due. That has been my mantra since 2016, despite all that has ensued to cast doubt, but I’ve reminded myself and others repeatedly that time itself is patient, as Nixon’s case proved.
In 1972, I turned 18 and paid more than academic attention to the election race between Nixon and McGovern. The residents above my dorm room were young Republicans, which at the time was merely a difference in perspective and not a cause for hatred. They displayed a “Nixon’s the One” campaign sign in their window. My roommate and I responded by our own sign below that said, “to blame.” We were prescient as it turns out, since time did blame Nixon for the burglary and coverup, but both we and our upstairs neighbors enjoyed the joke, which made the campus paper.
I won’t share who I voted for that years, but I do still have a framed McGovern/Shriver bumper sticker hanging in my office, a sense of perspective and a trust that our “better natures” will prevail.
