Four years ago, I went to go see the late, great Discord Records band, Q And Not U, play at the Troubadour in Los Angeles.  On the eve of an election there was really no better band to see than one plucked from the breast of Ian McKaye.   Four years was an eternity ago, a night filled with a lot of hope.  There was an intense feeling in that insular left coast world, that humming undercurrent, that general concensus that we the people couldn’t possibly be so dumb as to be making the same mistake twice.  And yet, we did!

Two weeks ago I ventured to the main branch of the Chicago Public Library to see the inimitable Sarah Vowell regale the flatlanders with a few lines from her brilliant new book The Wordy Shipmates.  The world could use a couple more Sarah Vowells, more Ian McKayes, more Q’s not U’s.  The dubious patriots, the samurais in sneakers.  The doers, the sayers.

In this new book, Sarah quotes from John Winthrop, who was a Puritan founder of the Massachusetts colony. A few words from his sermon of 1630, A Model of Christian Charity:

We must delight in each other, make others’ conditions our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, our community of members in the same body.

I must agree with Ms. Vowell that these words, these American words, are perhaps the most powerful ever uttered.  Incidentally the same words were utilized by Sandra Day O’Connor as we all watched that colossal piece of shit, Ronald Reagan, be lowered into the ground and hopefully the hell back in 2004.  

And so I hope, and so my fingers are crossed, let’s put 2004 behind us and remember 1630.  Let’s do this people.  Let’s make my union supporting, thunderstorm watching in the garage, faithful American parents seem honest.  Let’s make me believe that while America might not be the best country right now, it was, and it can be again.  Tomorrow!