THIS COUNTRY AND THIS DAY – AT 4:21 A.M. ET:  On this day in 1942, man achieved the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.  The event occurred under the West Stands at Stagg Field at the University of Chicago, under the direction of Enrico Fermi.

As a student at that university, I passed those stands almost every day, and sometimes paused to read the plaque:

The Chicago experiment was necessary to develop the atomic bomb.  We feared, with good reason, that the Nazis were working on the same weapon.  On December 2, 1942, victory over Nazi Germany and imperial Japan was by no means assured.  Yes, we had invaded Guadalcanal in the Pacific and North Africa on the other side of the Atlantic, but we were still hobbled by pre-war unpreparedness and unproved military leadership.

Enrico Fermi himself was a refugee from fascism.  Because his wife, Laura, was Jewish, he was forced to leave Mussolini's Italy.  His contribution to his adopted country was vast, and irreplaceable.  He was also a fine teacher of physics...and other things.  (He taught my wife's cousin how to ice skate.)

When I think of walking past that historic site, and the enormity of the effort this country put into winning World War II, it becomes that much more unnerving to read, as I have in the past few days, opinion columns declaring that America is in sad decline.  And it is true that, led by Barack Obama and his leftist choir, we do appear to be slipping away badly.

But don't believe it.

The last time we went through such a period of self-doubt was during the Carter administration more than 30 years ago, especially in the months following our failed attempt to rescue American hostages being held by the new, radical Iranian government.  I recall the leader of my daughter's Girl Scout troop wondering out loud whether this was still a capable country, whether we could still accomplish things.  After all, we'd been told by the press that we'd "lost" the Vietnam War just four years earlierr.

But, not too long afterward, Ronald Reagan was elected president, and our spirit was revived by a man who truly believed that it was always morning in America. 

We yearn for another Reagan right now.  We may or may not find him.  But we, as Americans, have always had a resourcefulness, an ingenuity, described well by Eisenhower in "Crusade in Europe."  We will succeed and grow again in greatness to the extent that we will it, in each home and county.

The one thing that can stop us, though, is an educational system, unique in our history, that is rotting the brains of our young.  If there is a single step we can take to reverse America's presumed decline it is to demand reform in our schools, and in the schools that teach our teachers.  No, we don't insist on an empty-headed nationalism or simplistic flag waving.  But we should insist on a teaching of this country's history that includes its glory as well as its defects, its vast appeal to the world as well as its errors.  More people want to come to America as immigrants each year than want to come to all other nations of the world combined.  We retain our magnetism.  If we will it, we will retain our greatness as well.

December 2, 2010