The Deflation of a Nation

We should be comforted some...by the fact that the people of our country are more awake now. The younger generations are more engaged than ever. We know that it isn't going to be easy and we know that we have to take the lead as a country with the power that we have. We have to understand that we can only do this by working together. Our partisan political system seems to inflate and bristle when the country deflates like this, but we have to willfully restore some balance and willfully engage in constructive compromise.

Excellent article... my father alway told me to take the long view of history. This article reflects that wisdom.

By far, one of the most immaculate presentations on the history of US, all in less than 100 lines. So much to read on and so much to learn from. That unique innitiative - I mean the family timeline - makes the whole process a lot easier to follow by foreign readers, particularly those who are novice with the ups & downs and the twists & turns of your civilization and blood-line. Now as with the content, I wish to add one thing to your constructive remarks.

The main difference between Americans and the majority of other nations (particularly, those of the developing world) is that you lot are inherently inclined towards navigating your way out by relying on your own compass and insight rather than submitting blindly to the routines and practices of the outside. A great advantage I just can't get into the minds of my own people, no matter how hard I try. This is the most superior characteristic that has, for decades long, kept your proud ancestors unfaltered and steadfast despite all the bends and the hard times. Your article has clearly pointed it out and I truly hope for the younger generation (your daughters and sons) to treasure this blessed gift of God, and by maintaining the courage to learn from the unavoidable errors and usual slip-ups, serve as a good model for the world and the mankind. I have my fingers crossed and may the Almighty God strengthen in you the prudence, the tolerance, the patience and the wide-open eyes that are, undoubtedly, the essentials for battering the obstacles and moving onwards.

I strongly recommend this article to all Americans, regardless of the faction (left or right) to which they belong.

Neat job, my friend. Just keep it up.

Excellent piece. I always enjoy the histories...

Thank you for helping me realize how we need to reunite as a Country. This has been a difficult time for all Americans, and you are right, we can not give up.

I was born shortly after World War II, and lived through the Eisenhower years as a child, it was such a mellow time, I was orphaned when I was six but was fortunate to find a wonderful foster family that raised me.

Tragedy struck our nation in 1963, when John Kennedy was slain, I grew up at that moment in time and forever lost my innocence about my country, about my world.

Today, I've grown older, my daughter is dying after a very valiant and long illness, while around me are these difficult times for our country.

Still, you are right, our country will survive these difficult times and move forward to a better and brighter day.

Thank you for sharing your family history, and for allowing me to share a bit of mine.

The long view is always good. Thank you for sharing. It makes me wonder what you would think of my latest article.

God Bless us all and keep us safe.
MaggieCat

ntq,JCAtom, and Maggie,

Thank you for your prayers and kind thoughts, god will take good care of my daughter, thank you for helping me remember this.

Maggie, I am fairly new to using the Vine, so I do not know how to reach you and your site without becoming friends, so if you want to invite me to be friends that would be great and I would be able to read your article all your articles. The same goes for ntq I would enjoying reading your seeds and articles.

I too will add my commendation for a wonderful piece.

What I find most interesting my friend, is just how much, as ntq said, this piece should be read by others, by the non-Americans, and specially the developing world.

We do indeed need to all start living in the world from being a:

unified group of States to being a single State with many parts.

Many of the issues you presented do apply to the world, and if we all start acting:

we can change everything, today, if we want. If each person did one thing constructive in their own neighborhood, one thing, today, the world would notice and change a little.

Thank you for sharing.

I like the author's optimism, and I agree with it. We must and we will pull ourselves out of this long nightmare of selfish people running the country. But climbing out of the muck of the past 8 years, and several other terms of office will take perseverance. I am very worried that we might allow GWB to become our Julius Caesar. Julius brought about the fall of the Roman Republic by becoming popular enough to override the laws of his country and make people believe their safety depended on the one strong man theory. The Romans gave up their independence to his successors because they were not strong enough together to deal with the power now collected behind the Politicians--and the one who fought to eradicate their freedoms in exchange for bread, circuses, and prosperity. Our country's government organization, while owing much to the British parliament, owes as much to the Roman Republic as a model. I just hope GWB is not our J. Caesar.

I also appreciate the vote of confidence from ntq, who apparently is not "from here." Thanks for your vote of confidence.

Your family timeline was interesting, but since my family was also here in Jamestown long before the revolution, I would disagree that the Civil War was the founding of our nation (as I think you are saying, the Ken Burns view), but it was certainly the beginnings of our nation's consolidation and unquestioned cohesiveness.

Exellent. I almost had a tear in my eye.

I wish there was some way to have you teach US history in schools. They need all the help they can get these days.

Keep up the good work!

Wonderful article.

I wonder, sometimes, if our modern lifestyle is part of our problem.

What are the social ramifications of: Air conditioners, Televisions, Computers, etc? At a certain time, phones and electricity were new.

What would be the differences of the average American household in 1800, 1900 and 2000? When the family arose, in the morning, what was everyone's chores and what methods were used to achieve them? What did fixing a pot of coffee entail? Eggs for breakfast? Milk on the table? Biscuits and gravy?

I wonder about our "can do attitude". Our ancestors had the "can do" and they "did". Otherwise the old family tree would have died. Most of our ancestors were simply trying to make a living and that took up nearly all of their time. Do to the advances in technology, we have a lot of spare time. Are we as productive with that time, as we should be? An old saying..."idle minds are the devil's playground".

JCAtom for President , hip, hip, horay, hip, hip, horay !!!!

Great article !!!!

The poignancy of a piece may be measured by the comment it excites. This piece was a pleasure to read and excited comment that was thoughtful, hopeful and pleasant. No mean accomplishment, my very dear fellow.

In light of the current situation, Americans have grown both complacent and have exhausted all of their time to ponder. We are all guilty of claiming to advocate change, but change to what? So many of the vines are acrid with the blame and short on offering quality solutions that can both be practical and effective. How, many thoughtful submission are made to our leaders that offer solutions for our current situation? Notice the number of people you encounter over the next week that actually appear happy. But what are they doing about it? Are they educating themselves out of their job at Wal-mart? or do they spend the majority of their time holding their pants up with one hand, effectively making themselves as disabled as an amputee to appear 'cool'. So much of the current media, for example, is not interested in presenting us with facts and insight to the status quo. Rather they are all trying to effect an adrenaline response to offer a red bull syndrome that leaves us exhausted and hopeless afterward. In order to effect a real outcome to a real problem, there will be both winners and losers. Somehow we have convinced ourselves that no-one has to lose anymore. Take oil for example. How many of the current leaders are trying to convince us we use simply use too much. How many actually feel that we should conserve some oil for future generations to use in plastic medical devices, advocate the building of a national high speed rail system that could run on hydrogen made from locally available energy sources. The only reason the manhattan project was a success was that it was super secret and fascist influences were not privy to it. It helped that our backs were against the wall. Exxon knows their days of profit are numbered. GM is already feeling the pain but we still drive their cars that burn gas back and forth to the burbs without any access to food, clothing or medicine without getting back into that car. Why aren't we expanding the postal service to deliver our food twice a week that would be ordered on-line or on our phones in vehicles that run on natural gas. TBoone should be lobbying the postal service alone for his energy plan. Point to it as a resounding success, then expand it. The infrastructure is there. Quit offering tax incentives of $7500.00 to new home buyers or those who have been renting for 3 years and use that cash to retrofit every HVAC system in every home that is over 10 years old, apply solar roofing, install a windmill or whatever provides a logical solution. We have to accept that there will be pain and few are simply willing to give ethical thought to these problems since few can be accomplished in a 4 year term. Now my adrenaline is flowing freely.

We should be comforted some...by the fact that the people of our country are more awake now. The younger generations are more engaged than ever. We know that it isn't going to be easy and we know that we have to take the lead as a country with the power that we have. We have to understand that we can only do this by working together. Our partisan political system seems to inflate and bristle when the country deflates like this, but we have to willfully restore some balance and willfully engage in constructive compromise.

Your words ring true, I too place hope on our younger generation. Partisan politics have brought our democracy and constitution to a dangerous state. Awakening of the younger generation questioning validity of partisan practices will be a mainstay to getting our country back on track. Ratings of congress and executive branch show that the masses are noticing mismanagement and perhaps this places them on notice that we are watching and this will affect their actions.

This piece is excellent and I agree everyone should read your work. I am clipping your article to my blog. Thanks jnick

What a wonderful encouraging article. Even though we've seen hard times we've seen them through - together. Remembering this I can have hope that we can and will pull together again and get it on down the road.

You write well. Unfortunately, I know little about my family except that one side was chased out of France during their revolution. I started my journey in life about 10 months after Pearl Harbor. Makes me wonder sometimes because nobody in the family talked much about family history.

I keep saying that the only way we will work our way out of the current mess is to put our differences aside for awhile at least, and find common ground that we can all work from. When you look at the grander scale of things, this earth we live on is only a little speck of dust floating around a rather small and ordinary ball of light. We have no place else to go and we need to learn to get along and live together. Life is far to short to waste it bickering over our differences and trying to play the blame game.

Hmmm...lots here. Let me say first that nowadays we have FEWER options for life than say, 1863. As in; We aspire to be 1. symbolic analysts 2. well-heeled patricians 3. self-righteous simpletons (choose only 1 "lifestyle" from the list and enter "submit").
My great-great-great-grandmother made a choice in 1706 and married a (gasp) Catholic and (horror of horrors) an Indian! She had been captured by the Mohawk of my village in Deerfield Mass. and decided that she could choose a healthier life by marrying Francis Arosen and leaving New England's paternalistic culture. (Women were "chattel" and there were witch burnings. etc.) She had freedom and respect and never gave it up. She outlived her siblings (Indians bathed regularly) while her father (John Williams) spent years running around trying to get her to come home. Personal history can be a window to life in this instant.

JC, I too did not know you, but am thankful that you asked me to be your friend. I am a product of the "Big War" world war 11 being born in 43 and have witnessed many changes in this country. It was a pleasure to read your article, and may I say that if you are not a professional writer you should be.

You are correct in saying that it is up to us all of us and to  say as JFK once said "ASK NOT WHAT YOUR COUNTRY CAN DO FOR YOU, BUT WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR COUNTRY". It is time for all Americans to take control of our country. We cannot leave it up to the President alone to lead we THE PEOPLE need to help by being truthful with ourselves and lead the world by example, to show the world that we are a people united and stand as one voice and stop the internal bickering that constantly goes on.

Again thank you, and may the good lord continue to guide your hand in your writings.  WELL DONE.

JC, I too did not know you, but am thankful that you asked me to be your friend. I am a product of the "Big War" world war 11 being born in 43 and have witnessed many changes in this country. It was a pleasure to read your article, and may I say that if you are not a professional writer you should be.

You are correct in saying that it is up to us all of us and to  say as JFK once said "ASK NOT WHAT YOUR COUNTRY CAN DO FOR YOU, BUT WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR COUNTRY". It is time for all Americans to take control of our country. We cannot leave it up to the President alone to lead we THE PEOPLE need to help by being truthful with ourselves and lead the world by example, to show the world that we are a people united and stand as one voice and stop the internal bickering that constantly goes on.

Again thank you, and may the good lord continue to guide your hand in your writings.  WELL DONE.

J, liked the article, informative and persuasive, just one thing I do not agree with

striving for impossible perfection

Sorry, I had not read it carfully, now I see "imposible" in the sentence.  We are anatiion far better than any other in the world.  Unfortunately we fight among ourselves and HELP other countries before we help each other.

thanks jc...your article is very inspiring and ignites the inner assurance of hope...

Jc,

Great article.  Even though it was written some time ago, glad it popped up just now.  I think it's pretty appropriate to consider these things when heading into the presidential election next week.