USA July 4, 2016 – There  Is Still There There

There is no there there.

Gertrude Stein  (1876-1946), of her hometown, Oakland, California

I do not know about Oakland,  but here in the USA,  I am still proud  to be an American,  and I  believe there is still some there there.

Like other Americans,  I  have worries.

I  worry about our youth and their lack of historical knowledge . They seem to  have no sense of our constitution,  our founding fathers,   our past wars,  current political events. the stories behind them, and what’s at stake in the current Presidential election.

Maybe  I worry too much.

Out of our sense of tolerance, fairness,   and hope for the future,  we twice elected a black president.    For all races,  he has been symbolic.   He has proven that all peoples,  no matter what their  race,  are  intelligent and  that all men are  of equal intellect.

Yes, we have crises.  

Hillary Clinton is in the midst of such a crisis.    But  is there any there there?   Are accusations of  malfeasance there?  Are the accusations partisan?   Is she innocent or arrogant?  Should experience, even  bad experience, count?  We’ll soon find out if there is any there there.

GOP presumptive nominee Donald Trump has his own crisis, created in no small part by his own words and tweets.   Does he have the experience,  the knowledge, the substance, and the temperament to make America great again?   Is American less great than it was in the past or before he came upon the scene?  Is there any there there behind that flamboyant persona?

Why should anyone want to be president?  

Because it is there.  Because being there and leading from there symbolizes what it means to be a free people.   So there.

There-in hangs this tale.