They don’t make Labor Day like they used to. The shifting forms and meanings of labor have rendered Labor Day our most nebulous national holiday. For example, in gardening—a leisure activity—Labor Day is incorrectly considered the close of the season. For holiday-goers, it marks the end of summer—despite schools regularly starting weeks before the first […]
Throughout my childhood in a small town outside Chicago, I idolized just three larger-than-life figures: Abraham Lincoln, Elvis Presley and Leadbelly, aka “Huddie Ledbetter”. Everything and everyone else in popular culture washed over me. I worshipped each god in this trinity, so to speak, in equal strength and measure. Elvis was the problematic idol—he had […]
Once introduced, Americans invariably inquire what business you’re in. While foreigners find the question a bit crass, it’s second nature to us. The question reflects our work ethic on the one hand, and our democracy on the other: it’s not who you are but what you do that defines you. We mean business. When you’re […]
On the upcoming 4th of July we celebrate our country’s independence. The annual commemoration comes loaded with spirited symbolism: fireworks, the Stars and Stripes, the rousing National Anthem, marching bands, bandstands draped with tri-colored bunting, citizens attired in colonial dress. The country’s majestic National Bird, the Bald Eagle, perches on signs and banners. This is […]
Mankind has really been put in its place over the last 500 years. Why only the other day, back in 1400, the sun orbited the earth; man was God’s consummate work of art; humans were masters of themselves and the domain God provided for them. Our secular fall from grace began with Copernicus, who dislodged […]
