Winter Waning Moon of the Cold Month
Temps have come up. Near freezing on Thursday. Break out the beer cooler, the barbecue and the hot dogs. Time for a picnic Minnesota style.
Every once in a while I find myself driving in a part of the Cities I don’t know well. Tonight was one of those times. I needed to get the Urban League building at 2100 Plymouth. Looked straightforward on the map, but, as usual, I wanted to try something, so I got off at the Olson Highway exit. Hmm. A bridge too far. I had to wend my back north through side streets. Finally found it and made it to the meeting.
Senate District 58, Linda Higgins. The Sierra Club’s first in-district meeting with members and legislators. A good turnout and a lot of good dialogue, back and forth on environmental issues, peace and justice and taxes. Back in the car, back home.
How about that news that GM sold more cars in China last year than in the US? Whoa. Things change. Our time at the top of the heap alone has come to an end. I’m not with the dystopians who see us limping toward the next century, a much larger and sadder equivalent of Britain after the fall of empire. Neither am I nervous about China. Nothing in their 5,000 year history suggests to me that they will do anything more than shore up their borders and try to make as much money as possible while living interesting lives.
My own feeling? The world will be better served with two different, but equal powers. Will we stay there with China for the long haul? I don’t know. I don’t care. How we live our lives here has become interwoven with China as an economic power, yes; but, will the superbowl or the world series cease? No. High school proms and McDonalds? No. Car trips and love of our national parks? No. Our wobbly, creeky democracy? No.
Will the US change over the next 50 to 100 years. Of course. More Latinos. Greater ethnic diversity. More people in cities. Sure. Will this makes us less American? Nope. Will it change what it means to be an American? Maybe. But are we the same Americans as those in the first 13 states? I don’t think so. Different than Civil War America? In substantive ways, yes. So, it stands to reason that American will have a different flavor in 2111. Not only am I ok with that, I celebrate it and hope my grandchildren and their grandchildren help make it special.
