There are critical periods in history and slack periods as well. This essay is not about slack periods.

April 1865, for example, stands out as a critical period in U. S. History. On April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General U. S. Grant, ending the Civil War, the bloodiest conflict in our history. The news of Lee’s surrender caused joyous celebrations over much of America. That joy did not last long. On April 14, 1865, a deranged actor and Southern sympathizer assassinated President Lincoln plunging the country into mourning. On April 24, 1865, the manhunt for Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth, ended as federal troops surrounded the killer. All these emotional events overshadowed the greatest maritime disaster in American history, which occurred on the Mississippi River just north of Memphis, Tennessee, on the early morning of April 27, 1865.

A side-wheel steamboat called the Sultana was heading north on the river carrying passengers, cargo, and a great many Union soldiers returning home from the Civil War. The Sultana was designed to carry 376 passengers but, on the early morning of April 27, 1865, the Sultana carried 2,155, or 573% of its capacity. A catastrophic boiler explosion at 2 a.m. in the morning set the overloaded vessel ablaze. The Sultana sank seven hours later. 1,259 died because of this tragedy.

Image: The SS Sultana, 1865. Public Domain.

The period from 2019 to the present is another critical period in America. The Wuhan Flu, which began in 2019, has killed 1,050,702 in America and 6,396,853 worldwide. It has been a time of riots and a disputed presidential election. The Wuhan Flu has rattled the economies of the world. Now, as I write, even the President of the United States is suffering from the Wuhan Flu.

Over a million illegal immigrants entered America during the first year of the Biden administration. I do not expect America to literally capsize because of this undeclared invasion, but I do wonder what the skipper of our American ship is thinking. His failure to regulate immigration is not popular.

As the border crisis drags on, a newly released Harvard/Harris poll delivers a strong rebuke to President Biden’s immigration policies. The results show that 80% of Americans consider illegal immigration to be of serious concern, 64% wish to “issue new, stricter policies to reduce the flow of people across the border,” and 67% “support turning illegal immigrants back to Mexico.”

The population replacement scheme Biden no leads was the brainchild of the late Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts. Kennedy, who attempted to sabotage the foreign policy of President Reagan, started the immigration rupture at our nation’s borders. The Democrats and Republicans in Washington refuse to patch the rushing flow of illegals.

Human error and greed caused the Sultana disaster. Formal inquiries followed the tragedy, but no one was ever held accountable.

Our leaders who favor open borders in 2022 are responsible for the current inflow of illegals. They justify their actions as compassion, but the goal of electoral supremacy drives these incursions.

When the illegals enter America, they are rewarded with social services. Our nation is $30.5 trillion dollars in debt, yet we are pretending to be the world’s endlessly rich uncle. As we crowd together on the national deck of America in July 2022, a collective déjà vu wariness is growing. Many see serious problems ahead as our nation steams up this uncertain river in the darkness of night.

Ned Cosby, a regular contributor to American Thinker, is a pastor, veteran Coast Guard officer, and a retired public high school teacher. His new novel OUTCRY is a love story exposing the refusal of Christian leaders to report and discipline clergy who sexually abuse our young people. This work of fiction addresses crimes that are all too real. Cosby has also written RECOLLECTIONS FROM MY FATHER’S HOUSE, tracing his own odyssey from 1954 to the present. For more info, visit Ned Cosby.