The myth of American exceptionalism

You often hear American politicians extoll our country as being the greatest on earth. We have the greatest political system, the greatest educational system, the greatest health care system. I'm here to tell you it is all a crock of well-ripened horse manure.

We have a political system that is bought and sold to the highest bidder. There is no "one person, one vote" anymore. Corporations have thousands, millions of votes because they buy them with millions of dollars. The ordinary, individual citizen stands little chance of having his/her voice heard. One way that they have been able to exert some power in the past is by banding together. There is strength in numbers, but very soon, if the Republicans have their way, that ability will be taken away as well. As for the Supreme Court, the final arbiter in our system of government, it has become so thoroughly politicized that the final votes can be counted virtually before arguments are heard on any issue - 5-4 in favor of whatever the current Republican orthodoxy is.

Our educational system has become a joke. Politicians continue to try to destroy it by failing to fund it and by reducing at every opportunity any assistance that poor students can get for higher education. Boards of Education across the country, led by Texas, try to impose biased histories and non-scientific "sciences" like creationism on students. They try to deny earth sciences teachers the right to teach anything that might acknowledge that the earth is actually warming up and that this might present a serious problem for human beings. Is it any wonder that our students lag so far behind students from other industrialized countries, particularly in the sciences and in math? In our educational system 2+2 does not equal 4 if our Boards of Education say it should equal 5.

The health care system? Remember the debate two years ago when conservatives were loudly proclaiming that we had the best health care system in the world and that people come from all over the world to take advantage of it? Balderdash! Instead, one of the hot new types of tourism engaged in by Americans is medical tourism in which they travel to some other country that has universal health care to have a medical procedure done because they can't afford to have it done here. When you have millions of people who cannot afford even basic medical care, you do not have the "best health care system in the world." When your infant mortality rate and your overall life expectancy cannot match other industrialized countries, you do not have the "best health care system in the world." When you have one of your major political parties throwing every roadblock they can think of in the way of poor people getting low cost family planning and of all women being able to control what happens to their own bodies, you do not have the "best health care system in the world."

When it comes to exceptionalism, I'm afraid the only things that Americans exceed at are provincialism, xenophobia, and blind boastfulness. At these, it is true - we have no equals.

Poetry Sunday: Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver

How about we share another Mary Oliver poem? After all, you can never have too many of those. In this one, the poet seems to acknowledge that it is often hard to simply live in and enjoy the moment, perhaps because we are afraid it can't last. She urges us to give in to that moment and fully experience the joy. Although "much can never be redeemed, still, life has some possibility left." Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is no...

Poetry Sunday: Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney

My mother was a farm wife and a prodigious canner. She canned fruit and vegetables from the garden, even occasionally meat. But the best thing that she canned, in my opinion, was blackberry jam. Even as I type those words my mouth waters! Of course, before she could make that jam, somebody had to pick the blackberries. And that somebody was quite often named Dorothy. I think Seamus Heaney might have spent some time among the briars plucking those delicious black fruits as well, so he would have known that "Once off the bush the fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour." They don't keep; you have to get that jam made in a hurry! Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust ...

Poetry Sunday: Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman

You probably remember poet Amanda Gorman from her appearance at the inauguration of President Biden. She read her poem "The Hill We Climb" on that occasion. After the senseless slaughter in Uvalde this week, she was inspired to write another poem which was published in The New York Times. It seemed perfect for the occasion and so I stole it in order to feature it here, just in case you didn't get a chance to read it in the Times . Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman Everything hurts, Our hearts shadowed and strange, Minds made muddied and mute. We carry tragedy, terrifying and true. And yet none of it is new; We knew it as home, As horror, As heritage. Even our children Cannot be children, Cannot be. Everything hurts. It’s a hard time to be alive, And even harder to stay that way. We’re burdened to live out these days, While at the same time, blessed to outlive them. This alarm is how we know We must be altered — That we must differ or die, That we must triumph or try. ...

The Nature of Things

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