ten red hen: a-merican a-t last

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

a-merican a-t last

I love this. I remember when I lived in NYC during the waning years of Clinton. I felt like my East Village/Lower East Side compatriots weren't American or anti-American, they were "A-merican," like being "amoral" or "asexual." It just didn't matter to them, they were above it all, or simply apart from it.

When I went on my road trip documenting populist theater in red states, and then on to Cornerstone and Mississippi, I got plenty of sneers about doing "social work" from folks who are now doing community-based art, or art about parts of American they don't know, or art about being American.

It took Bush's theft of 2000--and then the tragedy of 9/11--to shock folks out of their Clinton-era entitlement and apathy. And then, after 8 years of the terror and shame and humiliation his reign brought to our country (see Krugman's latest), after 8 years of seeing this land--whose membership they didn't even appreciate!--so very degraded, it took an inspiring leader who has the fastest learning curve in the history of American politics, who brought a brilliantly disciplined community-organizer strategy to his campaign--so this could happen.

# posted by Maya : Wednesday, November 05, 2008