Thank you. It’s good to be reminded that we as a country have never existed before as such must do things that have never successfully been done before
Thank you. I remember this piece. At the time, I was struck by, "This is not the chaos of the beginning of something. This is the chaos of the end of something." What a timely reminder. But we need to act. All of us.
Thank for reposting. Really good to realize that we are at the end of week 6 of the beginning of the 9th year of the most profound crisis in the US siince the Civil War. Tho you might say the Civil War never really ended. The effort to make this a country where the government works for the betterment of the common good is and will likely continue to be a long struggle. But maybe it’s reaching a crescendo in the digital age and maybe this ancient and radical notion of the intertwining of self determination and the common good that’s at the heart of the US Constitution will take hold.
Your writing is so appreciated following the tragedy for all of us yesterday witnessing Trump’s inability to conduct himself as a President, to engage respectfully in back and forth conversation with one of our allies, Zelensky, whom we have supported since that country’s brutal attack by Russia. It has never been clearer that Trump is a msn whose values are not in the American Presidential tradition of maintaining our hard won values of equality and fairness for all. As this is a most frightening time, your writing reminded us of our extraordinary accomplishments towards building a free and fair country for all, and the necessity not to surrender in fear to our values.
This was exactly what I needed today, Anand. Perspective and focus. Apparently I hadn't read it on its first publishing, but reading it now is a reminder of what America aspires to, as difficult and painful as it sometimes is. Inspiring me to stay in the here and now and look to the horizon.
Very well said. A very interesting vision of what American could be. And I think that has always been our ideal -- a country of the world. Even in the constrained world of the 18 century at our founding -- with all of its flaws and compromises -- we have looked to be a beacon for all, and I mean ALL. It is good to be reminded of that over and over again.
We are in a unique position as Americans. I will do my level headed best to rise to this occasion. Right lately I have been thinking, this is what I was made for! With a smile, ONWARD Americans. 😀
April 21st this year is PATRIOTS DAY. It’s a holiday which has been celebrated only in Massachusetts (where we lived, for many many years, minutes from the Lexington Battle Green, where the deadly wars for American liberty began and are re-enacted every year).
Perhaps this year we need a NATIONAL PATRIOT’s DAY, where we take to Americas streets to reaffirm in every way we can the values upon which we were founded and which have enabled us to thrive and grow. Where we reclaim our absolute opposition to despots and destroyers and those who would humiliate and reject our foundational values.
WHAT IS IT TO BE AN AMERICAN??? We need to affirm this to ourselves, each other, the world and reject all attempts to pervert that message. Righteousness is not resistance. We need to reject the primacy of petty differences and the addictive power of demagoguery to stand together.
I have thought for a long time that this backlash is the result of white men knowing they are losing their privilege. I assumed it would be a struggle to get them to relinquish their power and money, but I didn't expect it to be so bad that they are willing to destroy the country. I believe our children are better than us in this regard. The racism, misogyny, and zero-sum thinking is not what concerns them. If we enable them to thrive economically they will do much better than we are at this moment.
What you write still rings true in many ways: the uniqueness of the democratic experiment, how we navigate the cycling of progression and regression, how we have a choice between the prisms of light and darkness, and how the spasm of violence on January 6 signaled the end of something.
One image that keeps coming to mind is the tearing away of the veil from so many inequities that exist in our country, which were particularly exposed during Covid, so that in the midst of fear and loss, much of white America has had, and thankfully continues to have, a kind of reckoning with its past and why we are where we are now. This latest iteration of Trumpism and its assault on our very way of life has only sharpened our awareness and I believe it has been drawing us closer and closer to a collective red line, where choosing becomes the only thing to do because we can’t stand to be a part of the devil’s deal.
I can’t count the times over the last nine years I’ve felt waves of anxiety, dread, sadness, despair at every new turn of the knife. What helped was after many sleepless nights I decided I had no choice but, as you describe, to change the lens: search out another book, write diatribes and ripostes in my journal, and submit to the truth of all the things that have been uncovered. The ripping away actually became a point of hope, which I couldn’t help share with others, though I don’t think it went over very well.
It’s actually been easier this time around, because he’s after my soul and he won’t get it. It’s easier to turn despair into anger and anger into courage when what you may lose in the process is really nothing important.
I too believe that we, as a people, can, if we keep turning to look at where we started, then back to where we've come, keeping in mind where we want to finally go, we will continue to have the resilience to keep going forward.
I agree. I appreciate the efforts you, Anand, and others have and are making to hold those of us who want a world that embraces all human lives as worthy of love and respect, and to bring forth ideas, strategies and resources from among us, not only to survive this but to undo it. The perspective you share in this piece is among them..
Thank you. It’s good to be reminded that we as a country have never existed before as such must do things that have never successfully been done before
Thank you. I remember this piece. At the time, I was struck by, "This is not the chaos of the beginning of something. This is the chaos of the end of something." What a timely reminder. But we need to act. All of us.
Thank for reposting. Really good to realize that we are at the end of week 6 of the beginning of the 9th year of the most profound crisis in the US siince the Civil War. Tho you might say the Civil War never really ended. The effort to make this a country where the government works for the betterment of the common good is and will likely continue to be a long struggle. But maybe it’s reaching a crescendo in the digital age and maybe this ancient and radical notion of the intertwining of self determination and the common good that’s at the heart of the US Constitution will take hold.
Your writing is so appreciated following the tragedy for all of us yesterday witnessing Trump’s inability to conduct himself as a President, to engage respectfully in back and forth conversation with one of our allies, Zelensky, whom we have supported since that country’s brutal attack by Russia. It has never been clearer that Trump is a msn whose values are not in the American Presidential tradition of maintaining our hard won values of equality and fairness for all. As this is a most frightening time, your writing reminded us of our extraordinary accomplishments towards building a free and fair country for all, and the necessity not to surrender in fear to our values.
This was exactly what I needed today, Anand. Perspective and focus. Apparently I hadn't read it on its first publishing, but reading it now is a reminder of what America aspires to, as difficult and painful as it sometimes is. Inspiring me to stay in the here and now and look to the horizon.
I'm still eyeing Canada, though. ;)
Very well said. A very interesting vision of what American could be. And I think that has always been our ideal -- a country of the world. Even in the constrained world of the 18 century at our founding -- with all of its flaws and compromises -- we have looked to be a beacon for all, and I mean ALL. It is good to be reminded of that over and over again.
We are in a unique position as Americans. I will do my level headed best to rise to this occasion. Right lately I have been thinking, this is what I was made for! With a smile, ONWARD Americans. 😀
Clarity, love, mourning, and not a little hope. I needed this, perhaps almost as much as you did when you wrote it. Courage………
April 21st this year is PATRIOTS DAY. It’s a holiday which has been celebrated only in Massachusetts (where we lived, for many many years, minutes from the Lexington Battle Green, where the deadly wars for American liberty began and are re-enacted every year).
Perhaps this year we need a NATIONAL PATRIOT’s DAY, where we take to Americas streets to reaffirm in every way we can the values upon which we were founded and which have enabled us to thrive and grow. Where we reclaim our absolute opposition to despots and destroyers and those who would humiliate and reject our foundational values.
WHAT IS IT TO BE AN AMERICAN??? We need to affirm this to ourselves, each other, the world and reject all attempts to pervert that message. Righteousness is not resistance. We need to reject the primacy of petty differences and the addictive power of demagoguery to stand together.
I have thought for a long time that this backlash is the result of white men knowing they are losing their privilege. I assumed it would be a struggle to get them to relinquish their power and money, but I didn't expect it to be so bad that they are willing to destroy the country. I believe our children are better than us in this regard. The racism, misogyny, and zero-sum thinking is not what concerns them. If we enable them to thrive economically they will do much better than we are at this moment.
What a powerful and uplifting message! And just after Jan 6. I was a mess then, hardly thinking straight. Hope to reply more thoughts later.
Democracy Hard.
Fascism Mindlessly Easy.
I have seen enough of the White House gas lighting. The smoke and mirrors from Musk is bad enough. The lack of civil manner when hosting a head of state was despicable conduct. Felons generally do better. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/lauding-ukrainian-statemanship?r=3m1bs
The Second Coming
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds,
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?
W.B. Yeats
W. B. Yeats
Thank you for sharing this poem! Slouching toward Bethlehem has come to mind over and over again in the last 9-10 years…
What you write still rings true in many ways: the uniqueness of the democratic experiment, how we navigate the cycling of progression and regression, how we have a choice between the prisms of light and darkness, and how the spasm of violence on January 6 signaled the end of something.
One image that keeps coming to mind is the tearing away of the veil from so many inequities that exist in our country, which were particularly exposed during Covid, so that in the midst of fear and loss, much of white America has had, and thankfully continues to have, a kind of reckoning with its past and why we are where we are now. This latest iteration of Trumpism and its assault on our very way of life has only sharpened our awareness and I believe it has been drawing us closer and closer to a collective red line, where choosing becomes the only thing to do because we can’t stand to be a part of the devil’s deal.
I can’t count the times over the last nine years I’ve felt waves of anxiety, dread, sadness, despair at every new turn of the knife. What helped was after many sleepless nights I decided I had no choice but, as you describe, to change the lens: search out another book, write diatribes and ripostes in my journal, and submit to the truth of all the things that have been uncovered. The ripping away actually became a point of hope, which I couldn’t help share with others, though I don’t think it went over very well.
It’s actually been easier this time around, because he’s after my soul and he won’t get it. It’s easier to turn despair into anger and anger into courage when what you may lose in the process is really nothing important.
I too believe that we, as a people, can, if we keep turning to look at where we started, then back to where we've come, keeping in mind where we want to finally go, we will continue to have the resilience to keep going forward.
I agree. I appreciate the efforts you, Anand, and others have and are making to hold those of us who want a world that embraces all human lives as worthy of love and respect, and to bring forth ideas, strategies and resources from among us, not only to survive this but to undo it. The perspective you share in this piece is among them..