Garrison Keillor: The old America is fading

[babylonsister]

Sad.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/garrison_keillor/index.html?story=/opinion/keillor/2010/03/30/spring

The old America is fading
In spring one has hopes for the beloved country. But an old guy like me can't keep the doubt from creeping in
By Garrison Keillor


It is spring glorious spring (da do ron ron ron da do ron ron) and our gallant president has rallied his fractious forces against wacko demagoguery, the crocuses are up, and birds are returning from the South, preferring to raise their children here in Minnesota where we pull our pants on one leg at a time and not all at once. Some people in Washington haven't managed to get their pants on in years.

Slowly, slowly, the simple fact dawns on the electorate that the Democrats have passed a moderate Republican healthcare reform. That's what it is. The frenzy on the right is pure fear of stepping out of line with the Republican politburo and getting shipped to Siberia. This lockstep mentality is rare in American history. Here is a grand old party frozen, suspended, mesmerized, in thrall to a gaggle of showboats and radio entertainers and small mobs of fist-shakers standing staunch for unreality, and no Republican elected official dares say, "Let us not be nuts." There will be books written about this in years to come, and they will not be kind to the likes of Rep. Boehner and Sen. McConnell.

Meanwhile, it is spring, and one has hopes for the beloved country, though an old guy like me has his doubts. We are in the midst of a deluge of literature that only gets deeper and wider. Back in the day, you glanced at a couple newspapers and a handful of magazines and that was it, your duty was done, you had the evening free to sit on the porch and jiggle the ice in your glass and talk slow sensible talk with the friends and neighbors. But now, if you dare open your computer and go online, you are swept away into a vortex of surf and whirled around and around and when you finally gather the will to click Disconnect, you find that hours have passed. Weeks, perhaps. And you can't remember a bit of it.

It's all minced together, the raving bloggers and the cat who does backflips and Flip Wilson, Woodrow Wilson, San Salvador, Salvador Dali, Dolly Parton, George Patton, Patti Smith, Smithfield hams, Knut Hamsun, Sonny Liston, Franz Liszt, Lester Flatt, the origin of pancakes, Kay Kyser and his College of Musical Knowledge, kaiser rolls, Roland Barthes, Bart Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, wind energy, G. Gordon Liddy, Little Richard, Richmond Virginia, gin, Ginger Rogers, Roger Miller, Miller Lite and Thomas Edison -- and all you get from the experience is a lot of iron filings on the magnet of your brain and a vague sensation of activity of some sort, you're not sure what.

It's remarkable that the American people manage to withstand this storm of data and get outdoors and rake up the leaves and cultivate around the rosebushes. Turn on your radio and there's a lot of yelling about Marxist socialism and We Need To Take Back Our Country, and yet the American people plant tulip bulbs and sluice off the driveway and haul the glass bottles to the recycling center. Some sanity persists.

But the old America is fading, and I mourn its passing. Children don't wander free and mess around in vacant lots the way we used to -- they're in daycare now or enrolled in programs, and one worries about a certain loss of verve and nerve among the young who've been under constant supervision for too long.

And the old hometown is no longer a town but has morphed into suburban anonymity, and it hurts me. My grandmother taught school there, my grandfather came in 1880 and served on the town board that brought in telephone service and paved the roads, but their community of mutual assistance is gone, gone, gone. I have old friends in their 80s who've lived in that town for 50 years -- good citizens, church people, passionate volunteers and solid Republicans -- and in a crisis, when their health took a bad turn, nobody noticed. Neighbors don't know each other; ambulances come and go and nobody comes by to ask what's going on. The community they thought they were part of simply doesn't exist anymore. If you fall by the wayside, you may as well be in the wilds of Alaska.

What you do, if your life goes to pieces, is call up a social worker and she will see that you get some sort of assistance. So don't bad-mouth government programs. Unless you have fabulously wealthy children, you're going to need the help.

[polichick]

1. Sad that such a Democratic majority resorted to passing "moderate Republican healthcare reform"...

And sadder still what has become of the GOP.

[Rage Inc.]

7. Sad? The Republicans?

No: Frightening!

[BridgeTheGap]

15. It's the move to the middle that used to be the right, more akin to down the rabbit hole! n.t

[BrklynLiberal]

2. garrison keillor is one of our national treasures...

[pundaint]

14. True that. His essays at Salon are what I use to restore my blood pressure after too

much political blogging. For him to say this sounded like Cronkite saying Viet Nam was lost.

[derby378]

3. Maybe it's time for some of us to bring the old America back to life

I've been on-line in one form or another since the early 1980s, but I used it mainly as a way to meet other people and expand my own horizons by talking with them on the old BBS networks at first, then meeting them in person and doing fun stuff with them. I'll admit it, I was very awkward socially back then, but I'd like to think that making an actual connection with people I met on-line helped me overcome my social shyness.

In terms of building a neighborhood, Keillor is right. We actually have to step outside and make those connections with other people, try to see past our own backyard. I'd like to think it's not too late - yet.

[DavidDvorkin]

4. The old America is always fading

As is the old England, the old France, and so on. It's always been that way, and it always will be that way.

[hulka38]

5. I think we at DU understand that the Republicans are nuts.

We've gone over that a thousand times here. That's not news to us. The quote that should resonate and stand out in bold is, "Slowly, slowly, the simple fact dawns on the electorate that the Democrats have passed a moderate Republican healthcare reform. That's what it is."

I understand why you would choose the other quote to highlight based on your fierce advocacy of Obama, but I think Keillor's uncharacteristic pessimism comes as much from what the Democratic Party has become as an alternative to the nuts.

Much of the doubt creeping in on this old optimist comes from a politically dominant Democratic Party that passes a moderate Republican bill and calls it victory.

[babylonsister]

8. And I think you're wrong. I think Keillor is generally disgusted.

with technology and perhaps longing for the good old days.

Garrison Keillor: A toast to your health

Raise a glass for a landmark bill, achieved through the messy, maddening processes of representative democracy


snip//

Now that bipartisanship has been buried for good, Democrats can get about the business of running the government, which is their duty as the majority party, and let the Republicans sulk in their rooms and work on their Facebook updates. They've made it clear that if Mr. Obama suddenly decided to come out in favor of Mother's Day, they would fight against it as a ruthless exercise of federal power and a violation of due process. Fine. Talk to the hand.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=525782

[hulka38]

13. Again, your snip is that the Republicans suck which I and I hope all DUers

can agree on. A Toast To Your Health is Keillor's tip of the cap to Obama and Pelosi's accomplishment in winning a landmark political battle with the Republican Party 100% opposed. It was a slam on the inhumanity of the Republican position more than it was lavish praise for the content of the health care reform bill which he can't even bring himself to write. He calls it "hrothgar reform".

Keillor is not prone to conflicting thoughts or confusion on a subject. His quote one week later,"..Democrats have passed a moderate Republican healthcare reform. That's what it is." is completely consistent as one should expect.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. There are places where it does not fade, still.

My 82 year old widowed neighbor, I will call her Mary, up the street called me, feeling quite ill and rather panicked.
I quickly went to her house, she was very ill, upset, feeling faint, and was concerned she was having a heart attack. With her permission, I called 911. The operator was unsure of the address until I mentioned that a police dispatcher lives next door to us, then she knew exactly where the house was.
While we were waiting for the medics, a neighbor from 3 blocks away drove up. He is an
EMT, was listening to the police scanner ( everybody does, here) and has known Mary for years, went to school with her children. So "naturally" he rushed over to help.
2 minutes later a neighbor across the street who is an RN came over, having seen by now the 2 cars in the driveway and figuring something was wrong.
The EMT had his walkie talkie, of course, so he was giving street directions to the
medics, the nurse from across the street was taking Mary's blood pressure, I was finding Mary's purse and shoes.
Medics arrived, of course Mary knew every one of them since they had been children,
and they tenderly and carefully, with great courtesy and kindness, got her bundled up and off to the hospital. I locked up the house with the spare key I have, came home and called Mary's family to let them know what was going on. Then I called the ER to check up on her, the dr. gave me his cell number with a request to call him back in a hour when he knew more about length of stay.
He remembered my name from the years I had worked in conjunction with the emergency room, ( 10 years ago !!!!).
Everything about the incident was perfectly normal for this area.
And after all the dust died down, I realized again, as I often do, why I appreciate living
in my "Mayberry".

[babylonsister]

9. Wow, I think you're very lucky, and it's nice to read you recognize

the value of living in such a close-knit community.

[dixiegrrrrl]

10. We could use a few more good people. Seems there are some vacant houses here.

:hi:

[babylonsister]

11. Hey! Any jobs there?

Once I find one, I'll be looking for the other. :D

:hi:

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. uhhhh....no...not close by.

That is the trouble with tiny rural towns in the South.
The Depression has hit us very hard. 24% unemployment.
Lot of retirees like myself.
Really too bad, because the housing prices are dirt cheap.

Mobile, Birmingham, Montgomery have most of the job market.
Mobile is doing fairly well, actually. Nice livable city, too close to the water for my taste
(hurricanes).

[Liberation Angel]

16. Brilliant! K&R! The irony is....

you also find gems like this on the internets

Keillor is an American Icon and about the best we have right now!

May he be always blessed