It Ain't Over Til It's Over

Empires do run their course. OTR's always loved Ben Franklin's observation about George Washington's Rising Sun Chair at Independence Hall. Could the sun be rising or setting? Franklin saw it as rising along with the new republic. Today some may look at that chair and draw a different conclusion. Some don't need a chair decoration to know where they stand. We're approaching 250 years of experience with the American experiment and, compared with the record of things at the heart of Western Civilization, maybe its not so grim after all.