This essay by Aaron Woolf recalled for me the Overstory by Richard Powers. It won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2018. The novel relates the fragility of trees, but they survive because they are a community. The importance of interdependence, cooperation, and regeneration are crucial to their survival.
This statement struck me as much as it clarified things for you, "What baffled him was watching people confront a shared problem and choose contempt over repair, choose to demean rather than sit down and work it out. If it were some smaller fraction of the country, he said, he thought he could get his mind around it. He couldn’t anymore." Neither can I...
As I approach 60, having lived through decades of social, economic, and historical change, one realization stands out above all others: how profoundly we, as a people, have changed since the Bicentennial.
We were certainly a conflicted nation in 1976, but we still shared a common reality and, despite our disagreements, a common desire to solve problems together.
Today, too often, politics has become a zero-sum contest where winning matters more than governing, and defeating opponents takes precedence over addressing legitimate concerns. That shift- from seeking consensus to seeking victory at all costs- has been one of the most damaging changes in our national character. It also helps explain why, for many Americans, feeling patriotic in this moment is more complicated than it once was.
In 1976 WW2 was living memory for most Americans. That was the war where everyone served together, rich and poor. And the rich weren’t so much richer than the poor. Vietnam saw those of means mostly escaping service through college or bone spurs or moving to Canada and since then we’ve had a volunteer military which has created further separation between classes.
Fix it. So many people that I know want to fix it, including myself. I will soon be 75 years old and fear deeply that the country I love will never be fixed if we keep on the trajectory that we’re on today. Your essay, Aaron Woolf, brought me to tears this morning.
Thanks, Aaron! Your essay pushed several of my buttons.
The challenge of “when, as a child, were you first aware of being an American”made me stop reading and made me reflect in the moment. The first thought that came to mind was Pearl Harbor day, Sunday, December 7, 1941.
Two months earlier I had just turned five years old. In the afternoon of 12/7, my family was visiting relatives who had a farm in southwestern Michigan (“the heart of the fruit belt”).
The radio was playing in the living room. All conversation stopped when the voice of President FDR came on. He announced that Pearl Harbor had been attacked and the United States was at war with Japan.
Emotion filled the living room, because my distant cousin, Wesley Graham, son of the relatives we were visiting, was stationed in Pearl Harbor and was on the USS Oklahoma.
I will never forget the emotion that filled the room. Of course, Wesley was killed in the attack.
Just to follow up, in 2015, under President Obama, the Department of Defense started a process of identifying the unidentified bodies of the sailors who lost their lives that day. One of my older sisters was asked to submit her DNA to the DOD, which she did. Wesley’s body was identified, and his remains are now buried, with honor, in the military cemetery at Fort Custer.
Proud to be an American, in spite of…. From the very beginning of the American experiment in democracy in 1776, America has been a work in process, with all of its ups and downs.
I will not lose hope!
Could write about the other buttons you pushed, Aaron, but enough is enough!
Forest Service Chief Considering Giving States Control of National Forests
""Tom Schultz told a room of governors he’s “thinking about” it. The governors had already said yes in writing. And the state first in line is suing to take 18.5 million acres of your land outright.""
This essay by Aaron Woolf recalled for me the Overstory by Richard Powers. It won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2018. The novel relates the fragility of trees, but they survive because they are a community. The importance of interdependence, cooperation, and regeneration are crucial to their survival.
Beautifully written. Thank you for the hopeful essay.
Very good writing,but a very sad state of affairs for this country. One candidate I like for next election in ‘28 is Gov. Pritzer, also Mike Kelly.
This statement struck me as much as it clarified things for you, "What baffled him was watching people confront a shared problem and choose contempt over repair, choose to demean rather than sit down and work it out. If it were some smaller fraction of the country, he said, he thought he could get his mind around it. He couldn’t anymore." Neither can I...
As I approach 60, having lived through decades of social, economic, and historical change, one realization stands out above all others: how profoundly we, as a people, have changed since the Bicentennial.
We were certainly a conflicted nation in 1976, but we still shared a common reality and, despite our disagreements, a common desire to solve problems together.
Today, too often, politics has become a zero-sum contest where winning matters more than governing, and defeating opponents takes precedence over addressing legitimate concerns. That shift- from seeking consensus to seeking victory at all costs- has been one of the most damaging changes in our national character. It also helps explain why, for many Americans, feeling patriotic in this moment is more complicated than it once was.
In 1976 WW2 was living memory for most Americans. That was the war where everyone served together, rich and poor. And the rich weren’t so much richer than the poor. Vietnam saw those of means mostly escaping service through college or bone spurs or moving to Canada and since then we’ve had a volunteer military which has created further separation between classes.
Fix it. So many people that I know want to fix it, including myself. I will soon be 75 years old and fear deeply that the country I love will never be fixed if we keep on the trajectory that we’re on today. Your essay, Aaron Woolf, brought me to tears this morning.
Thank you for a hopeful, wonderful article
The people who think that “fixing it” means drowning our government in a bathtub have convinced people that government is the problem.
We are past the fixing it phase.
Can we rebuild something that approaches the best of what we were?
Thanks, Aaron! Your essay pushed several of my buttons.
The challenge of “when, as a child, were you first aware of being an American”made me stop reading and made me reflect in the moment. The first thought that came to mind was Pearl Harbor day, Sunday, December 7, 1941.
Two months earlier I had just turned five years old. In the afternoon of 12/7, my family was visiting relatives who had a farm in southwestern Michigan (“the heart of the fruit belt”).
The radio was playing in the living room. All conversation stopped when the voice of President FDR came on. He announced that Pearl Harbor had been attacked and the United States was at war with Japan.
Emotion filled the living room, because my distant cousin, Wesley Graham, son of the relatives we were visiting, was stationed in Pearl Harbor and was on the USS Oklahoma.
I will never forget the emotion that filled the room. Of course, Wesley was killed in the attack.
Just to follow up, in 2015, under President Obama, the Department of Defense started a process of identifying the unidentified bodies of the sailors who lost their lives that day. One of my older sisters was asked to submit her DNA to the DOD, which she did. Wesley’s body was identified, and his remains are now buried, with honor, in the military cemetery at Fort Custer.
Proud to be an American, in spite of…. From the very beginning of the American experiment in democracy in 1776, America has been a work in process, with all of its ups and downs.
I will not lose hope!
Could write about the other buttons you pushed, Aaron, but enough is enough!
Forest Service Chief Considering Giving States Control of National Forests
""Tom Schultz told a room of governors he’s “thinking about” it. The governors had already said yes in writing. And the state first in line is suing to take 18.5 million acres of your land outright.""
https://morethanjustparks.substack.com/p/forest-service-chief-considering