It has been said that difficulty or adversity BUILDS character. In a way, we can say that the challenges our country has faced so far, and continue to face, have helped BUILD our character. We have also built buffers in the interim. And have become stronger as a nation. But, I also believe difficulties or adversities REVEAL character.
Another lesson is that population growth and the attendant economic growth in the West is not zero sum, and that small towns can still grow healthily while the metropolises of the West continue to attract people, partly from outside the region.