America Is Exceptional: But Because It Yields

The Strongest Streak In The American Character Is A Fierce Pragmatism That Mistrust Blind Ideology Of Every Stripe And Insists On Finding What Really Works.

If Whiteness Were Of No Particular Advantage, Then Having A Fuller Color Wheel Of Skin Tones Would Be Purely A Matter Of Celebration. But Whiteness - Just A Drop Of It - Does Still Carry Privilege. You Learn That Very Young In America.

After Watching My First World Series In 1977, I Wanted To Be Reggie Jackson. I Bought A Big Reggie Poster. I Ate Reggie Candy Bars. I Entered A Phase During Which I Insisted On Having The Same Style Of Glasses Reggie Had: Gold Wire Frames With The Double Bar Across.

In The End, A New Americanization Movement Can't Just Be About Listing Our Privileges And Immunities, Which We Catalog In Our Laws. It Also Has To Be About Reinforcing Our Duties, Which We Convey In Our Habits.

I Had Heard So Much Negative Talk About Our Generation, That We're Slackers And Young Fogies, That I Knew Wasn't True Of The People I Know.