On its 250th anniversary this is not the nation I once knew.
Our flag. Crown Graphic 4×5, 135mm Xenar, Kodak film.
I left the failed nation of England for America 49 years ago, full of anticipation and hope for this new adventure.
Today, the America I so proudly joined in 1977 is unrecognizable.
– Where there was love now there is hate.
– Where there was tolerance now there is bigotry.
– Where minds were open now they are closed.
– Where there was adulation of education now there is denigration.
– Where there was a Great Society now every man is out for himself.
– Where there was a decent leader now there is a common criminal.
– Where immigrants were welcomed with open arms now there is ICE.
– Where children could look forward to a better future than their parents now they cannot.
– Where there was peace now there is endless war.
– Where there was a thrust for equality now we have the greatest inequality since the Gilded Age.
I weep for my adopted country.
It’s neither insignificant nor unimportant that your country has you to weep for it—or say out loud where it falls short. Both are needed now. I’ll grant that things feel smaller now or worse, that they’re tightening toward a point of infinite cruelty. But this backsliding, grotesque as it is, is no more inevitable than the progress that preceded it—bitter tears and all. So carryon!