(2 of 2)
Too gloomy? What about America and the Unmovable Middle? Now that most of the divisive national issues have been cooled and moderated, maybe we're stuck in dead center. America, the Stuck-in-the-Mud--which soon elides to America Too Careful By Half. Passions simmer down to casual wishes. The Taming of America?
Whatever became of Free At Last America, or Inventive America, or America the Frontier or Can We Help You Up America? Hellooooo! Anybody out there? Sprechen Sie poor, hungry, homeless? Est-ce qu'on parle fair play? Does anyone speak criticism anymore, I mean other than Gore Vidal?
Sometimes one picks up a sign that the country must be here somewhere, like the half-buried Statue of Liberty they came upon in Planet of the Apes. Senator McCain's admirably stubborn efforts on behalf of campaign-finance reform, for example. But the general citizenry does not seem very interested in public policy, does not seem interested in anything, in fact, except the frequent sightings of Alan Greenspan mounting the steps of the Capitol. What about Cash-In America? How's this for a clever title? America: Interest Without Principle.
It's getting cold out here. A formation of geese is hooting its way north, so that must be north. Dotcom companies are going south, so that's south. East is east, and west is over there. That's about as close as I can come to identifying our position. sos.? Mayday? Anne Tyler's new novel, Back When We Were Grownups, opens with this sentence: "Once upon a time there was a woman who discovered that she had turned into the wrong person." Anybody recognize this place?