Heather Cox Richardson is one of America’s most trustworthy and insightful voices for democracy in our current struggle to preserve and restore democratic institutions in the U.S.A. She is a historian, professor at Boston College, and author of the recent book, Democracy Awakening.
Heather publishes a daily Letters from An American on Substack. I rely on her daily digest of the day’s events put into a historical context. Heather examines our present struggle to protect democratic governance with a long view from the founders to the present leadership. She shows us a longer trajectory and reminds us that we the people have agency to shape our future. Most importantly, she corrects misinformation, clears the clouds of half-truths.
A Great Voice for the Earth and for Belonging to Land has passed out of our direct experience but his voice, his art, his words will last forever as long as he is remembered. We must not forget what he taught us to see and feel.
American Masters Film about N. Scott Momaday’s life and works. This film is a work of art as well. He’s not like anyone you know but you feel like you recognize people in him. His words are powerful in that they are skinny on description but its all there in the way the words are put together. A spirit of land is what I believe he embodies in flesh, voice, and his writing.
Formative Boyhood Experiences of Momaday
Words from a Bear
I recommend this beautiful little book, a masterwork of all N. Scott Momaday knew and shared condensed into these short but powerful recollections of the Earth: Earth Keeper. Published in 2020. 65 pages. You can carry it in your pocket as you travel this incredible Earth.
What can modern American citizens and our political leaders learn from Hume? How were the views of our founding fathers shaped by the great philosophers of their time? How do they influence modern understanding of our Republic today? See this link to Federalist Paper 10 which considers the power of a government system to stem the tidal pull of dangerous fractions.
Jeffrey Rosen leads the discussion with three scholars of Hume. Original sources are suggested and links embedded in the chat during the discussion and provided on the wesite link above.
These same ideas are not only alive and well in our current political deliberations but also illuminate what has gone wrong and why. We can all use a dose of Hume and Madison to understand the forces that can threaten or aid the pursuit of happiness, meaning the common good.
Highly recommended to readers on this blog. Please forward to friends, neighbos and teachers and leaders in your communities. It is a non partisan discussion for all political persuasions to consider and for understanding the original thoughts and ideals that influenced the founding of America.
Janet Yellen, Sec. of the Treasury, at the Economic Club of Chicago…
Please share this critical address on the state of America’s economy as a way to encourage Americans overall and to stem the tide of disinformation from the MAGA Republicans.
The Biden Administration is led by an exceptional Cabinet of experts who carry out the work of the People on a daily basis, many without much public media coverage. However, one exception is Anthony J. Blinken, Secretary of State who is receiving widespread coverage with the Ukraine war and the Israeli-Hamas conflict and other rumblings around the Middle East. No President and administration knows when conflicts like Ukraine and Israeli will happen during their administration. These two conflicts are now consuming Biden and Blinken’s attention, travel and diplomatic talks. Both Ukraine and Israel were attacked without provocation by Russia and Hamas respectively. Each of these conflicts has sent shock waves throughout the world and we are now witnessing new alliances form and old ones consolidate. Some say the U.S. diplomatic position (leading) is waning, others that it is essential to peaceful resolution.
Each time I listen to Anthony Blinken describe America’s diplomatic goals around the world, as well as the thinking behind policies, I realize how critical it is to elect a President with experience, one who will bring the best minds to the challenge to democracies from authoritarian movements rising around the world.
Mr. Blinken executes his office of Secretary of State with wisdom, humanity, and a clear vision of America’s role in the world. In this interview below, Secretary Blinken is interviewed by Tom Friedman at Davos on January 17.
American culture is a busy, somewhat fraught place as individuals and groups strive to influence the direction of markets and ideas. More and more these activities take place on digital platforms that are globally accessed and influenced by everyone from elementary school children to foreign governments and posers (human and artificial). Evermore diverse and without much internal control except that which participants choose to shape, democraciesdepend on the individual’s commitment to discerning the truth.
John Adams reminded citizens that “facts are stubborn things,” meaning that truth cannot be corrupted. Yet in today’s digital environment, truth is battered, shaped, recolored and redressed until it represents its opposite. An example is the kidnapping of democratic language used to support MAGA athoritarianism. Citizens duped and caught up in the web of lies are aiding authoritarian forces that seek to destroy the liberal order established after WWII and the system of governance established at our founding.
This article from Pew Research reports on the growing number of Americans who favor technology companies or the U.S. government restricting false or violent information. What do you think? What are the risks? Gains? What are the challenges the average citizen faces in attempting to discern the truth in today’s marketplace of ideas and influencers?
Not so according to five of nine U.S. Supreme Court Justices. Read how they consider “trust” established in treaties between the Navajo Nation and the U.S.
Emergence Magazine is Vital to Recovery of Our Earth, Our Origin
Photo by Susan Feathers 2023
Emergence Magazine provides profound and relevant experiences and knowledge vital to humankind’s return to kinship with all life on Earth.
The magazine is a portal to poets, writers, educators, and spiritual leaders from around the world. It is a portal of reflection and ways to heal, and love. Here for example is an amazing poem by Ross Gay, To the Fig Tree on 9th and Christian.
You haven’ lived without reading a new writer of fiction, Angeline Boulley.
You haven’t lived without reading a new writer of fiction, Angeline Boulley. The Firekeeper’s Daughter, her first novel (2021), was listed on the New York Times Best Seller List and has been nominated for numerous awards, and is being produced on Netflix as an episodic story. I was drawn to read it by my local book club but also because Louise Erdrich, Pulitzer and National Book Award-winning Native American novelist, raved about it. See Birchbark Books, Louise’s independent book store in Minneapolis.
In a recent interview by Louise with Angeline, Boulley describes why she wrote the book and its sequel (Warrior Girl Unearthed). Both novels are Young Adult but all adults are reading it as well because the values and knowledge Boulley emparts to readers is chicken soup for the soul, or “how things should be” among us human beings. Her Objibwe culture is generously described throughout the book in an engaging way through the main character, Daunis Fontaine. Boulley was Director of Indigenous Education at the U.S. Department of Education. Her father is a firekeeper in his tribe (a keeper of tradition and culture) and Angeline has been in leadership roles in her tribal nation. Imparting understanding of her Ojibwe traditions is purposeful.
During this interview, I learned about Marcie Rendon, another Ojibwe writer. Murder on the Red River is the first book in a mystery triology with the lead character, Cash Blackbear, a 19-year old kickass woman. Like Boulley, Rendon incorporates current and past issues for Native Women and Native Peoples in America. The issue addressed in this book through Cash is the foster home abduction era when young native children were removed from their homes by BIA officials to be “rescued” from what was considered “bad homes”. Cash has endured seven foster homes before ending up in Fargo, North Dakota. The local sheriff received Cash each time she was kicked out of a foster home for her behavior and continues to observe and intervene with compassion. Their partnership to solve a murder is endearing, gritty and funny. The book is a three part series – Sinister Graves is heading toward my mailbox with Girl Gone Missingnext in line. Rendon has that clean-sentence-no-nonsense way of telling a story that allows the reader’s imagination to spark and fire. I read the book over a day. HIghly recommended for you mystery readers!
In Non-Fiction, I recommend Ned Blackhawk’s new The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History. It is very well written and riveting as Dr. Blackhawk lays out the book and then shows how Native American tribal communities influenced and shaped outcomes before, during and after the Revolutionary War and Civil War. Ned is a historian whose prose is easy to read but well sourced. It won this year’s National Book Award for Nonfiction. It is a book that can be read over time and should be on every history readers’ bookcase for reference on American history that is inclusive of the great traditions and historical importance of Indigenous peoples.
See below an interview with Dr. Blackhawk at the National Constitution Center.
Susan Feathers 