America has a serious problem, as evidenced by multiple school shootings and a political assassination all within the span of two weeks. What’s less obvious is that the lessons of history give us the solutions, if only we bothered to see them.

First, we must not sugarcoat our present-day social problems. Our youth are in a moral and spiritual free-fall where overdoses and suicides are common, school shooters are imitated or idolized, 13 year-old girls are hijacking cars and teens threatening to shoot workers over disputes over fast food orders.

Yet we must also view these problems with historical context. If we continue to say that things are inevitably getting worse, if fearful people are told, repeatedly, that we are on the verge of civil war, then we risk a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Irrational fear can spur people to take desperate action to defend their ideals. And that is a very dangerous place to be in as a society.

During my time in the Civil Rights Movement, I witnessed heroism amid vicious discrimination that has so much to teach us today.

During the Montgomery........

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