Guinness

Although my name is Irish and I drank young, I was late to hear of Guinness. I first heard of it in an America movie. The film was about feuding. In one scene "the hero" was confronted by a couple of unsmiling, arms carrying, bearded guys who said to him, " Are you with us or are you a Guinness?"

Americans Seen

Foreigners have sometimes seen the public character of individual Americans as: blind to social duties,  careless, hasty, cheerful, energetic, courageous, and teachable.

They have seen the national characteristic of Americans as conquerers who bring disgrace and degeneration on themselves and disaster on the conquered. They have suspected that rather than consider themselves aggressors Americans have considered themselves to be God's servants.

Others have see Americans as carrying out shameful and contemptible conquest in service of the devil with little frankness and a great deal of self deception.

Still others have seen Americans as lying missionaries, conquerers, and marauders among weaker people.

Those who know our internal history see us as treating even those close to us as unwanted others, as conquered trash to be disposed of. The see that early on we treated southerners, Californios, and American Indians in that way. They learned that we called them dehumanizing names and closed our eyes to their humanity.

Some saw our business men as crudely violent revolutionaries.

Some saw us as pretenders to being a great people, but who in fact did not understand social duty or social loyalty, and who acted much too often with careless ignorance.

I have traveled a great deal and have nearly always and everywhere been treated with friendship and respect as an American. Still I have been asked why our government treated others with such brutality. I have been told that we are liked and respected as American individuals. I was told that they respected the people and only the people of America

"The Spanish Bow"

Andromeda Romano-Lax is the young woman who wrote The Spanish Bow. She speaks and writes in English. She may be living in Alaska and was probably born in Chicago. 


I bet that she can play the cello. I suspect that she is a traveling explorer and discovered as well as being a literary and musical discover.


She writes well.
She tells a tale well
She's a good writer.


You might be able to learn more about here or her work at:
http://49writers.blogspot.com
or
www.romanolax.com

American Literacy

Laura Bush, thank you for your contributions to the quality of American literacy.

"The Flood"

Young Joe Flood's excellent new book, The Flood, has just been released. I think that reading it might be an excellent step toward learning an important bit about the past and likely future workings of internal U.S. politics.

Let me know what you think.

America:

The greatest supporter of dictators known to man is the United States Of America.

Why do I say that? Why does anyone say that?

The Prince and the Coyote

J. Frank Dobie is a big hearted Texan, an intelligent interpreter of the American South west, and a darn good writer.

In a 1947 work of his called The Voice of the Coyote I've encountered a name I didn't remember, Prince Kropotkin. I find that in about 1890 Prince Peter Kropotkin wrote Mutual Aid. He wrote to counter the greed and heartlessness of interpreters of Darwin's attempt to explain changes in species over space and time. We have come to call those certain interpreters, social Darwinists. Those social Darwinists would understand and appreciate the greed, in the guise of free enterprise, abroad in our world today.

I don't remember my teachers mentioning Kropotkin. You may find the words about him in Wikipedia interesting.

Kropotkin and Dobie both seemed to have great appreciation for inclusive, practical, and generous cooperation; as do I.

Prince Kropotkin's Mutual Aid contains examples of supportive cooperation among animals as does Dobie's The Voice of the Coyote.

I recommend the works of J. Frank Dobie for low tasty reading. The Voice of the Coyote may be a great place to start. But his works such as Coronado's Children, A Texan in England, or Apache Gold nd Yaqui Silver may suit you as well.