Two of my books, Still Common Sense, and Awake, address the economy, our history, legal system, and political division. There are two themes in the books.
(1) You own you, in a (2) Imperfect but exceptional America
The country does not understand the historical environment around the nation’s founding.
The problems in our country are not a function of a dated constitution. Most have never read it, and we aren’t following it.
My novel Two Civil Wars, looks at how emotions drove the Civil War. Even stronger emotional disagreements drove the Mexican Civil War raging at the same time. The end of the war between the states was guided by forgiveness guided by constitutional norms. The nation healed. In Mexico the winners made new rules, and that nation continues to rumble with economic and political unrest more than a century and a half later. Two Civil Wars is a love story and an adventure. It is a story of battle and brutality; of personal loss and joy. It’s a story of how love for our fellow man prevailed in the USA.
My fiction books include a thriller story and a love story, and all take a hard look at how this country overcomes challenges. In Enemy Patriots, I write about the racism against Japanese Americans and how so many of them were crucial to victory. I contrast that with racism rampant across the world. In The Opposite of Trust, the underlying conflict is how the people of the USA and of the Soviet Union both were faced with authoritarianism during the Cold War, and how each learned different lessons.
With these observations as background, what is wrong with this country? I don’t have the answers. For Rodger’s Top Five this month, I listed five of the quotations that I refer to when sorting out my own life. That exercise pushed me to think about similar quotations that might be helpful in sorting out America’s problems. Consider these two, in our Constitutional Republic.
“The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule it.” – H.L. Mencken
“Fight for the things that you care about. But do it in a way that will lead others to join you.” – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
This country is imperfect. It is also exceptional. Personal success is driven by each of us owning ourselves. Each of us needs to step away from saving humanity and the world and pick specific issues that we can change and then engage others to help rather than scream about those with different views. Ghandi said, “Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.”
One final quotation seems to offer advice.
“You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks.” – Winston Churchill