Our Better Selves

"America is not perfect, but none of our problems is unmanageable. Their seriousness is often exaggerated, generally for political reasons." This is from Bill Bradley's new book, The New American Story. I have not read it yet (it's on my list). I agree, we can do better. If only we weren't so selfish and shortsighted. Take the Iraq war, for example. The signposts for this disaster were all over the highway but we did our best to ignore them. The extent of the tragedy and of the pain and suffering we have caused (that's right - we - you and me - all of us Americans) is beyond imagining. A little common sense and courage could have prevented this. That we let a fool like George Bush and his vicious cronies steamroll us points to our collectively deficient character. And, to change the subject, that we continue to allow our cities to be destroyed and our countryside to be paved over by eight lane boulevards and endless shopping malls and parking lots, is another example of the same deficiency. We could say no but somehow we can't get the words out. So maybe this is what Bill Bradley is trying to do - start getting the words out. That we can be better. That we can make the hard decisions and make some sacrifices and start cleaning up our messes.