THE NATION

...trying again to determine who we are

“So we beat on boats against the current borne back ceaselessly into the past”

F. Scott Fitzgerald   The Great Gatsby

I am American. I am glad to be an American.  My United States citizenship is central in the collection of pieces that make up who I am.  The neighbors on the streets where I have lived have helped me define myself. However, as a more global American than many of my fellow citizens, I have spent a good deal of my adult life thinking of myself as a citizen of the world. Having lived as a resident of a foreign republic and having traveled extensively in many countries, I have picked up information about who I am from other citizens of a world wider than the U.S.A. 

Since details have emerged of the botched execution in Oklahoma yesterday, my sense of shame and embarrassment has been almost overwhelming. Most Americans probably don’t know and many wouldn’t care that Belarus and Kazakhstan are the only European countries with the death penalty. In September and October Margaret and I will be in France.  We are certain to be asked to explain why the U.S. has not abolished the death penalty. What shall I say?  

I made my pilgrimage to Scott Fitzgerald’s and Zelda’s grave at Old St. Mary’s cemetery in Rockville.  The quote from The Great Gatsby on the grave stone is appropriate today.   “So we beat on boats against the current borne back ceaselessly into the past”