I don’t need to recount the crazy, tragic, and even scary things that have happened in the U.S. in the past year or so.  These kinds of things can cause people to wonder—is America falling apart?  Are things worse than ever?

The media is filled with “experts” who all seem to have a different answer for these problems.  I can’t pretend to be an expert or have certain answers.  But I do have a suggestion for a way to answer the question: is American falling apart?

Let’s look at our own history for some help.  Has there ever been another time when people were as worried and confused as this?  When many thought that America was falling apart?  I’m old enough to remember the year 1968.  Here are some of the things that happened.

—The war in Vietnam was still going on with the American death toll to reach almost 17,000 which would be the worst year of bloodshed for our soldiers.  The draft was still in effect so men of my age were constantly worried they’d be called up to fight in the jungles and become another number to add to the 17,000.  Today, students worry about student debt.  In 1968, we worried about our lives.

—After the president assured Americans that we were winning the war, the North Vietnamese launched the Tet Offensive.  It was the largest attack by the enemy in the history of the war and showed how wrong Johnson and the experts all were.  It also meant more years of fighting and dying for Americans.

—North Korea seized a small U.S. ship, the Pueblo, near its coast and kept the American crew hostage for many days while the world teetered on the possibility of a second war with North Korea.

—American soldiers in Vietnam were discovered to have massacred 347 Vietnamese civilians, women, and children in what became known as the My Lai Massacre.  Surely, one of the lowest points for the American reputation abroad.

—The violent crime rate rose to a high of 33.7/1,000 people.

—During the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, protesters were arrested and beaten by Chicago police in what later was called a “police riot.”  One hundred American youths were sent to emergency rooms for care.

—Bobby Kennedy, running for president, was shot and killed in Los Angeles by a Lebanese terrorist.  The second Kennedy to die by an assassin’s bullet.  His brother, president John Kennedy had been killed just five years earlier.  People couldn’t believe this was happening in our country and asked: is America falling apart?

—The Rev. Martin Luther King was shot and killed in Memphis by a white supremacist.  His death set off another wave of rioting and looting in at least ten American cities (Washington D.C., Baltimore, Kansas City, Chicago, Detroit, New York) that some commentators saidwas the greatest wave of social unrest since the Civil War.

—There had been prior riots, burning, and looting.  In 1965 the Watts neighborhood in Los Angeles riots had gone on for days and destroyed blocks of the city.  In 1967 a similar riot occurred in Detroit.  As a result, when the rioting started after King’s death, the U. S. military had prepared heavily to counter black American insurrections.  The military even had plans to occupy Washington D. C.  All across the country in the cities that were in trouble, the army and National Guard deployed with guns.

The events happening today are serous and tragic—I don’t discount them at all.  But it’s important to remember we’ve been trough these kinds of things before and we survived.  In fact, many of these problems caused good things to come about as a result.

History teaches us not to lose hope!