More than a few thoughts on the United States; past, present and future.
I am ranging through The American
Trails Series, ten books edited by A. B. Guthrie, Jr. and published in the 1960s.
They each have a different author, including Wallace Stegner (The Gathering of Zion) and Stewart
Holbrook (The Boston Post Road). Beginning
with prehistory, they are accounts of major routes of exploration, migration,
trade and conquest on the North American continent, mostly within what became
the United States.
Long before introducing Lewis and
Clark In Westward Vision: The OregonTrail, author David Lavender posits, “Men
can always find ‘evidence’ for believing what they wish to believe.” Similarly,
before chronicling the first emigrant wagons leaving Independence for South
Pass and Farewell Bend, he writes, “When nothing is known, anything can be
believed.”
Both statements refer to the search
for an “easy” way across the continent; finally
achieved when the Union Pacific was finished in 1869. Railroads sealed the fate
of the continent; connecting the coasts and everything in between. Until then, the
West was reached by wagon, canoe, horseback or shank’s mare; or by sailing around
the Horn. Either took about the same amount of time, if you arrived at all.
Thousands who started did not, but thousands more did. Each passage made the way
a bit easier for those who followed.
The sheer size of the continent collided
for centuries with the fantasy that there had
to be a “practicable way” across. Lewis and Clark finally reached the Pacific, but
only by heroically sustained effort and extreme travail. Others had even rougher
times of it. It came down at last to trappers and traders to find routes across
a landmass that grew larger with each exploration. In their wake came the missionaries;
and, at last, thousands of Betsies and Ikes, with their “two yoke of oxen and large
yeller dog,” searching for a better life.
Chicanery, savagery and cutthroat
competition accompanied Europeans across North America. French against English
against Spanish against Russians against upstart Americans against the fierce
natives against the very nature of the place. Everyone fought everyone, even
amongst themselves — for trade dominance,
territory, furs and buffalo robes; for gold, silver, copper and water; for
abolition and for slavery. They fought for the hell of it in trapper rendezvous,
mining camps, cow towns and nascent cities like Butte, Lewiston, San Francisco and
Denver.
Winners write history . . .
Winners write history, so we have a
distorted view of how the U.S. came to be. Our country contains an inordinate
number of schools, cities, towns, mountains and rivers named for scoundrels,
thieves, murderers and unprincipled politicians. I live in Sanders County,
named for Wilbur Sanders, cast as hero in many Montana histories (his daughter
wrote one). More closely examined, he qualifies in all categories above. Many
states have counties named for great men, but honest history finds Lincoln a
depressive, Grant an alcoholic, Franklin a philanderer, Jefferson and
Washington slave holders, Clark a political finagler, and even the great Lewis a
suicide. But they all did great things, crucial to the founding and maintenance
of our country.
In the meantime, ordinary men and
women broke the prairie sod, cut down the forests, rushed to grub gold from
Last Chance Gulch and the Klondike; built myriad shelters and hopeful towns
that are now dust and forgotten. They were neither grander nor less depraved
than their “betters;” they were just ordinary folk, some with darker secrets
than others. They worked for, railed against, murdered and were murdered by, robbed
and were robbed by, fell before, stood up to, preached against, admired and hated
the folks things are named for.
We haven’t changed much. But still,
we go on.
This brings me to the subject at
hand: the riotous debacle in Washington, D.C., last week by Trump loyalists,
incited and encouraged by Trump himself; aided and abetted by Congressional
allies. We watched in awe and agony the drama unfold, asking ourselves and our
neighbors how this was possible in the United States. Remember Lavender’s
words: “Men can always find ‘evidence’ for believing what they wish to
believe.”
Underlying part of the attraction of Trump to his followers are myriad conspiracy theories about the “deep state,” which, depending on which versions you wish to investigate (note that I did not use the word “believe”) — and there seem to be many — controls mainstream media, is hidden in the United Nations, has secret military bases in the mountains, is trying to eliminate religion and/or plotting world domination by secret societies based in lofty offices (and cathedrals) worldwide. For believers in such, Trump seems to be their great hope of breaking the “death grip” of these super-secret groups, of which nothing really concrete is known. In the case of those so deluded, I recall, “When nothing is known, anything can be believed.”
Where nothing is known . . .
Trump himself seeks to dominate the
world, or as much of it as he can; which seems to be shrinking rapidly. (The
rats are leaving his ship of state at historic rates.) His admiration for Putin
alone should alarm anybody who cares for democracy, not to mention phone calls
to various election officials; examples of many such actions — illegal, immoral
and imperious.
It flummoxes me also that
self-identified Christians support Trump, especially Bible believers. Have they
read what Christ says about how to treat your neighbor? Have they studied the Beatitudes?
Does their Savior love the AR-15 and all of its works? Would Jesus have showed
up in Washington last Wednesday? Do they think Christ would approve of the
wall? “Go ye into all the
world,” was Jesus’ charge. He didn’t exclude Mexico. And the only thing he had to say about any
sexual matter was, “Let him without sin cast the first stone.”
People express shame at our country
for the way the Trumpeteers conducted themselves during the election and the
assault on the Capital. My view of that rabble is that they are just that:
exhibitionists, racists, conspiracists, covidiots and wild-eyed ultra-conservatives
who wouldn’t know the Constitution if it bit ‘em in the butt.
We need not be ashamed
We need not be ashamed. If last
Wednesday happened in Russia or China or any number of other countries, the
response would have included troops, truncheons, tanks and quite possibly
machine guns. The live coverage we suffered through would have been cut off and
reporters would have faced arrest or deadly violence.
We are STILL living in the best
country in the world. Not only do we have the ability and the right to witness
our own insanity, but we still have the power to fix what’s wrong with us. We
can do so by educating ourselves to the processes of law, and being involved in
their making and decisions about how to enforce them. We can’t do so by
believing in mythological plots to take over the world. Those happening in
plain sight are enough to keep us busy.
We still suffer from scoundrels,
thieves, murderers and unprincipled politicians. And, people will always look
for something easy to believe, especially if it allows them to shed
responsibility to think for themselves; especially if it riles up emotions and
shuts out reason. Being pissed off is easier than trying to parse out the right
thing to do. And our national enemies — internal and external — are expert at
pissing us off.
Even thinking for ourselves, we can
still be wrong. I give you the 18th Amendment as a good example. But
being blindly wrong is inexcusable, and being intentionally misleading is as
well. One of our greatest freedoms is the freedom of speech, but alternative “truths”
spouted by hate media and conspiracy theorists are based in fear and blaming
others. Inciting “believers” against “different” others and spreading fear of
ambiguous — and nonexistent — enemies is a method used by Hitler, Stalin, Mao,
Pol Pot and the Inquisition to assume and hold power and consequently killed
many millions who didn’t meet their “standards.”
Blessed to be rid of Trump
We will be blessed to be rid of
Donald Trump — and we will be next week. What Biden and Harris will be able to
accomplish is yet to be seen. Whatever it is, we citizens need to give them as
much fact-based feedback as possible, and that means we need to take on the
work and responsibility of staying informed and thinking for ourselves.
We need to talk and listen to each other now. We
may never be able to come to national consensus about certain things, but we
need to find the common ground we do have. We also need to tell those who would
drive wedges between us for their own enrichment or to flesh out their own delusions
to sit down and be quiet. We need to turn them off, tune them out and call them
on their BS. There will always be those who can
“. . . find ‘evidence’ for believing what they wish to believe.” We need
to be brave enough to ask why they believe what they do. And listen to the
answer. Let us not assume or mythologize how wide the metaphorical continent of
national healing is, because, “When nothing is known, anything can be
believed.”
A shower of sand fell from my pack as I emptied it today. The stuff is whiteish, with gray and tan highlights. In my mind, there’s a big mystery about the color. Why is it almost white when near all the stone surrounding it is some permutation of black? The
It’s 4:19 pm on the day when A Few Thoughts is due, and I’m just getting to it. It’s been on my mind, but my mind has not been coming up with a good subject, which is not a new phenomenon, but one I’ve not had trouble with for at
Politics: Bombing Iran? So, what’s new? We’ve been interfering in Middle Eastern politics since forever. The argument that Donnie will keep us out of wars is now moot. Maybe 100 times more folks showed up for “No Kings Day” than for Donnie’s birthday parade ala Red Square. The military seemed
After 61 days away traveling the West, with ten days on Maui thrown into the middle, it’s good to be home. I drove 7,434.8 miles, took way too many pictures, played golf, skied, ate out my cooler, camped out, stayed with friends and stayed within budget. It was a good
I turned 74 last week, and I’m thinking of turning away from political commentary. I have tried for 25 years-plus to get people to think for themselves about who will be the best leader for the future of their kids and grandkids, but bottom line always seems to be the
More than a few thoughts on the United States; past, present and future.
I am ranging through The American Trails Series, ten books edited by A. B. Guthrie, Jr. and published in the 1960s. They each have a different author, including Wallace Stegner (The Gathering of Zion) and Stewart Holbrook (The Boston Post Road). Beginning with prehistory, they are accounts of major routes of exploration, migration, trade and conquest on the North American continent, mostly within what became the United States.
Long before introducing Lewis and Clark In Westward Vision: The Oregon Trail, author David Lavender posits, “Men can always find ‘evidence’ for believing what they wish to believe.” Similarly, before chronicling the first emigrant wagons leaving Independence for South Pass and Farewell Bend, he writes, “When nothing is known, anything can be believed.”
Both statements refer to the search for an “easy” way across the continent; finally achieved when the Union Pacific was finished in 1869. Railroads sealed the fate of the continent; connecting the coasts and everything in between. Until then, the West was reached by wagon, canoe, horseback or shank’s mare; or by sailing around the Horn. Either took about the same amount of time, if you arrived at all. Thousands who started did not, but thousands more did. Each passage made the way a bit easier for those who followed.
The sheer size of the continent collided for centuries with the fantasy that there had to be a “practicable way” across. Lewis and Clark finally reached the Pacific, but only by heroically sustained effort and extreme travail. Others had even rougher times of it. It came down at last to trappers and traders to find routes across a landmass that grew larger with each exploration. In their wake came the missionaries; and, at last, thousands of Betsies and Ikes, with their “two yoke of oxen and large yeller dog,” searching for a better life.
Chicanery, savagery and cutthroat competition accompanied Europeans across North America. French against English against Spanish against Russians against upstart Americans against the fierce natives against the very nature of the place. Everyone fought everyone, even amongst themselves — for trade dominance, territory, furs and buffalo robes; for gold, silver, copper and water; for abolition and for slavery. They fought for the hell of it in trapper rendezvous, mining camps, cow towns and nascent cities like Butte, Lewiston, San Francisco and Denver.
Winners write history . . .
Winners write history, so we have a distorted view of how the U.S. came to be. Our country contains an inordinate number of schools, cities, towns, mountains and rivers named for scoundrels, thieves, murderers and unprincipled politicians. I live in Sanders County, named for Wilbur Sanders, cast as hero in many Montana histories (his daughter wrote one). More closely examined, he qualifies in all categories above. Many states have counties named for great men, but honest history finds Lincoln a depressive, Grant an alcoholic, Franklin a philanderer, Jefferson and Washington slave holders, Clark a political finagler, and even the great Lewis a suicide. But they all did great things, crucial to the founding and maintenance of our country.
In the meantime, ordinary men and women broke the prairie sod, cut down the forests, rushed to grub gold from Last Chance Gulch and the Klondike; built myriad shelters and hopeful towns that are now dust and forgotten. They were neither grander nor less depraved than their “betters;” they were just ordinary folk, some with darker secrets than others. They worked for, railed against, murdered and were murdered by, robbed and were robbed by, fell before, stood up to, preached against, admired and hated the folks things are named for.
We haven’t changed much. But still, we go on.
This brings me to the subject at hand: the riotous debacle in Washington, D.C., last week by Trump loyalists, incited and encouraged by Trump himself; aided and abetted by Congressional allies. We watched in awe and agony the drama unfold, asking ourselves and our neighbors how this was possible in the United States. Remember Lavender’s words: “Men can always find ‘evidence’ for believing what they wish to believe.”
Underlying part of the attraction of Trump to his followers are myriad conspiracy theories about the “deep state,” which, depending on which versions you wish to investigate (note that I did not use the word “believe”) — and there seem to be many — controls mainstream media, is hidden in the United Nations, has secret military bases in the mountains, is trying to eliminate religion and/or plotting world domination by secret societies based in lofty offices (and cathedrals) worldwide. For believers in such, Trump seems to be their great hope of breaking the “death grip” of these super-secret groups, of which nothing really concrete is known. In the case of those so deluded, I recall, “When nothing is known, anything can be believed.”
Where nothing is known . . .
Trump himself seeks to dominate the world, or as much of it as he can; which seems to be shrinking rapidly. (The rats are leaving his ship of state at historic rates.) His admiration for Putin alone should alarm anybody who cares for democracy, not to mention phone calls to various election officials; examples of many such actions — illegal, immoral and imperious.
It flummoxes me also that self-identified Christians support Trump, especially Bible believers. Have they read what Christ says about how to treat your neighbor? Have they studied the Beatitudes? Does their Savior love the AR-15 and all of its works? Would Jesus have showed up in Washington last Wednesday? Do they think Christ would approve of the wall? “Go ye into all the world,” was Jesus’ charge. He didn’t exclude Mexico. And the only thing he had to say about any sexual matter was, “Let him without sin cast the first stone.”
People express shame at our country for the way the Trumpeteers conducted themselves during the election and the assault on the Capital. My view of that rabble is that they are just that: exhibitionists, racists, conspiracists, covidiots and wild-eyed ultra-conservatives who wouldn’t know the Constitution if it bit ‘em in the butt.
We need not be ashamed
We need not be ashamed. If last Wednesday happened in Russia or China or any number of other countries, the response would have included troops, truncheons, tanks and quite possibly machine guns. The live coverage we suffered through would have been cut off and reporters would have faced arrest or deadly violence.
We are STILL living in the best country in the world. Not only do we have the ability and the right to witness our own insanity, but we still have the power to fix what’s wrong with us. We can do so by educating ourselves to the processes of law, and being involved in their making and decisions about how to enforce them. We can’t do so by believing in mythological plots to take over the world. Those happening in plain sight are enough to keep us busy.
We still suffer from scoundrels, thieves, murderers and unprincipled politicians. And, people will always look for something easy to believe, especially if it allows them to shed responsibility to think for themselves; especially if it riles up emotions and shuts out reason. Being pissed off is easier than trying to parse out the right thing to do. And our national enemies — internal and external — are expert at pissing us off.
Even thinking for ourselves, we can still be wrong. I give you the 18th Amendment as a good example. But being blindly wrong is inexcusable, and being intentionally misleading is as well. One of our greatest freedoms is the freedom of speech, but alternative “truths” spouted by hate media and conspiracy theorists are based in fear and blaming others. Inciting “believers” against “different” others and spreading fear of ambiguous — and nonexistent — enemies is a method used by Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and the Inquisition to assume and hold power and consequently killed many millions who didn’t meet their “standards.”
Blessed to be rid of Trump
We will be blessed to be rid of Donald Trump — and we will be next week. What Biden and Harris will be able to accomplish is yet to be seen. Whatever it is, we citizens need to give them as much fact-based feedback as possible, and that means we need to take on the work and responsibility of staying informed and thinking for ourselves. We need to talk and listen to each other now. We may never be able to come to national consensus about certain things, but we need to find the common ground we do have. We also need to tell those who would drive wedges between us for their own enrichment or to flesh out their own delusions to sit down and be quiet. We need to turn them off, tune them out and call them on their BS. There will always be those who can “. . . find ‘evidence’ for believing what they wish to believe.” We need to be brave enough to ask why they believe what they do. And listen to the answer. Let us not assume or mythologize how wide the metaphorical continent of national healing is, because, “When nothing is known, anything can be believed.”
A few thoughts on five days in sandals.
A shower of sand fell from my pack as I emptied it today. The stuff is whiteish, with gray and tan highlights. In my mind, there’s a big mystery about the color. Why is it almost white when near all the stone surrounding it is some permutation of black? The
A few thoughts on trees, O2, CO2 and basic breathing.
It’s 4:19 pm on the day when A Few Thoughts is due, and I’m just getting to it. It’s been on my mind, but my mind has not been coming up with a good subject, which is not a new phenomenon, but one I’ve not had trouble with for at
A few thoughts on politics, the weather, religion and literary license
Politics: Bombing Iran? So, what’s new? We’ve been interfering in Middle Eastern politics since forever. The argument that Donnie will keep us out of wars is now moot. Maybe 100 times more folks showed up for “No Kings Day” than for Donnie’s birthday parade ala Red Square. The military seemed
A few thoughts on writing for free.
After 61 days away traveling the West, with ten days on Maui thrown into the middle, it’s good to be home. I drove 7,434.8 miles, took way too many pictures, played golf, skied, ate out my cooler, camped out, stayed with friends and stayed within budget. It was a good
A few thoughts on the power of consent.
I turned 74 last week, and I’m thinking of turning away from political commentary. I have tried for 25 years-plus to get people to think for themselves about who will be the best leader for the future of their kids and grandkids, but bottom line always seems to be the