‘On Freedom’ Found Haiku, Finding Wisdom

Review by Bill Doughty

Timothy Snyder dedicates “On Freedom” (Crown New York, 2024) “to those who wish to be free.” He attempts to define “freedom” –– positive freedom –– as not destruction and absence of things, but creation and presence of values, including the right kind of moral and political values.

“Virtue,” he writes, “is an inseparable part of freedom.”

So, too, is accountability, honesty, humility, and rule of law.

His book begins on a train in Ukraine, one of three trips to the democratic country he writes about after Putin’s Russia invaded its neighbor.

Snyder takes us along as he travels to and through Ukraine and contemplates the birth of the idea of freedom and democracy in ancient Greece. His writing is beautiful, poignant, and painful –– especially in light of the current state of affairs in the United States and the world where storm clouds seem to be gathering.

He condemns the rise of autocracy, oligarchy, inequality, and what he calls “sadopopulism.” And he offers prescriptions for standing up to greed, grift, and the abuse of power.

“As the future crashes in, we can panic and blame others. Those predictable reactions make us part of the mob and the catastrophe. Or we can, as free people, take responsibility, look deep into Earth’s past, and save the world.”

Freedom must be fought for. It is not a birthright, and it is not preordained. “The moment you believe that freedom is given, it is gone,” he warns.

A recurring theme in “On Freedom” is the need to confront racism in a free country. The military, up till now, has made a concerted effort to increase diversity and reject racism.

World War II was a watershed event: defeating fascism and creating democracies in Japan and Germany while also confronting bigotry, prejudice and discrimination on the home front. Snyder cites examples of veterans of the Second World War who returned to face hate and segregation. He discusses the Freedom Fighters of 1961 and the role of Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis in the peaceful fight for freedom, equality, and voting rights. 

We must engage, he asserts, writing on a train ride within Ukraine.

Snyder

And we must reject complacency, supplication to authority, leaders' hypocrisy, and our own lazy thinking, including confirmation bias (treating information as evidence only when it confirms what we already believe).

It is also important to recognize “the false tragedy of choice” presented by social media algorithms — between entrepreneurship and social justice, for example.

“On Freedom” includes an appendix that compares positive and negative freedom. The positive view: Government must be made for freedom; the negative view: Government must be dismantled for freedom. Science is either (positive) how we engage with the world or (negative) “one opinion among others.” Racism is either a historical fact requiring reflection or strictly “personal, irrelevant to freedom.”

Extrapolating from the appendix, security and prosperity are achieved through rule of law and accountability (positive freedom) or strictly imposed through strong-arm policing (negative).

We cannot sacrifice liberty for safety, Snyder advises.

“We believe that we can trade freedom for security. This is a fatal mistake.” A government of, by, and for the people should not be shunned or belittled.

Snyder writes, “We enable freedom not by rejecting government, but by affirming freedom as the guide to good government. Reasoning forward from the right definition of freedom, I believe, will get us to the right sort of government.”

He describes “five forms of freedom” as the “logical, moral, and political links between common action and the formation of free individuals.”

“The five forms are sovereignty, or the learned capacity to make choices; unpredictability, the power to adapt physical regularities to personal purposes; mobility, the capacity to move through space and time following values; factuality, the grip on the world that allows us to change it; and solidarity, the recognition that freedom is for everyone.”

Sometimes the best way to see oneself is through the eyes of others. That applies to people specifically and nations generally. Snyder says his book is for the United States, but, as a historian, he draws comparisons with western Europe, eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and Nazi Germany.

Synder relies on other Western historians, philosophers, and critical thinkers: Frantz Fanon, Václav Havel, Leszek Kolakowski, Edith Stein, and Simone Weil. And he calls on more familiar names such as Socrates, Thomas Jefferson, George Orwell, and Ray Bradbury to help illustrate his point.

This vital book answers some of the questions brought up in Snyder’s “On Tyranny.” 

In this follow-up, he shows how to fight oligarchy (reject disinformation) and confront climate change (embrace to search for fusion power).

He champions actual infrastructure initiatives, real freedom of speech, and a commitment to civil rights.

We discover hidden unintentional “found haiku” in Snyder’s writing. Seventeen syllables, 5-7-5, displayed in three lines, that capture and focus an insight or truth like a laser. Here are a few:

Freedom is not just

an absence of evil but

A presence of good

Empathy is a

precondition for certain

knowledge of the world

Overconfidence

makes us vulnerable to

the propaganda (of tyrants)

A free person sees

the world in color, as through

a kaleidoscope

Synder’s prose travels effortlessly through countries, eras, and moods, both light and stormy. One moment he writes of oppression in the former Soviet Union and hope in Cold War-era Czechoslovakia; the next moment he expounds on the roots of rock and roll, the Velvet Underground, Louie Louie, and Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention. “On Freedom” is a fun, enlightened, but ultimately serious ride on Snyder’s train of thought. 

(Top photo of Ukraine's Carpathian Mountains courtesy of Pixabay)

Military Role in Fascism ‘Prequel’

Review by Bill Doughty––

It wasn’t until Imperial Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and Germany declared war on the United States in December 1945, that the burning embers of fascism dimmed and hot coals of active antisemitism, Christian nationalism, and Nazi support –– even in the U.S. Congress –– lost their glow.

But the fire never completely went cold.

Prior to World War II and even after, brave Americans sought to root out the supporters of fascism who went so far as to try to recruit members of the military as well as military veterans to their cause. One fighter of domestic fascism was a WWI veteran named Leon Lewis. 

Lewis sought to uncover a conspiracy of violent extremism targeting Jewish Americans and institutions. It’s one of the stories recounted in “Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism” by Rachel Maddow (Crow, Penguin Random House, 2023).

“What Leon Lewis decided to do was something incredible. And incredibly dangerous. He went out and recruited a small group of men, picked from the exact same pool the Nazis were after –– disgruntled non-Jewish American veterans of the recent war [World War I],” Maddow writes.

“But the Lewis operation did more than simply investigate and report. Before long, Lewis and his team scuttled a plot by U.S. Marines to sell guns and ammunition to the American fascists. Lewis and his underground team could not be credited in public for their part in this operation, but it did earn them the enduring and crucial admiration of high-ranking naval intelligence officers. They also exposed an elaborate inside-job scheme to take control of U.S. military armories on the West Coast. That plan was run by Dietrich Gefken, a German national who had been one of the early organizers of Hitler’s Brownshirts in Munich. After joining the California National Guard and inventorying the cache of rifles, machine guns, and coastal artillery pieces on hand at the San Francisco armory, Gefken had drawn up ‘the Armory plans, floor plans, location of ammunition and lockers and rifles, the list of addresses of the officers and all that was needed to take over the Armory on a given notice.’ Lewis’s spies handed over their evidence of Gefken’s plot to military intelligence officials, who shut it down.”

How Naval intelligence officers at the Navy base in San Diego helped bring the wider plot to light is almost an aside, but the story should be of great interest to military readers.

On the East Coast, more than 20,000 people attended an antisemitic pro-Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden in 1939. One of the banners visible in the above photo reads, "Stop Jewish Domination of Christian America." The rally was dubbed a patriotic pro-American event tied, without irony, to George Washington’s birthday. [General/President Washington rejected calls from supporters to become dictator of the young United States.]

How could the rising flames of fascism in the United States in the 1930s be forgotten in time? In interviews promoting “Prequel,” Maddow notes how the bigger story of the war in Europe (and the Pacific) eclipsed the story of homegrown fascism and Nazism and the quiet patriots who battled the threat to democracy here.

Brave and truly patriotic men such as Lewis, O. John Rogge, Dillard Stokes, Henry Hoke, Eric Sevareid, Drew Pearson, and William Power Maloney stood up and spoke out against antisemitism and against indifference and obstruction by the Truman Administration, as demonstrated by Attorney General Francis Biddle and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.

Federal prosecutor Rogge

“The plain truth is that the FBI was missing in action as fascism and Nazism took root and grew  in the United States in the mid-1930s,” Maddow notes.

Despite having the rug pulled out from under them in their prosecution of the fascists, both Maloney and Rogge continued with honor, courage, and commitment to uncover and report domestic enemies and violent extremists.

“Maloney and his investigators had discovered the double helix of the violent, Nazi-supporting, and Nazi-supported threat in the United States; it was part foreign and part domestic, part propaganda and part armed paramilitary movement.” He had led the investigation into Nazi propagandists using frank privileges at taxpayers’ expense. After federal service, he continued a career as a colorful and successful prosecutor.

“Rogge’s new charging document, like Maloney’s, alleged violations of the Smith Act –– an effort to demoralize America’s armed forces. But Rogge had sharpened the case, alleging targeted effort by the defendants to recruit National Guardsmen, reservists, and even active-duty U.S. troops into these ultra-right groups, where they could use their military skills, connections, and access to weapons to help arm and train paramilitary fascists for the overthrow of the U.S. government.”

Rogge uncovered evidence against American fascists and Nazi-supporters when he provided support to the Nuremberg trials after the war.

Men of character like Lewis, Rogge, Stokes, Hoke and others were seemingly outnumbered by questionable characters –– men (and some women) who placed greed, power, and religion above the Constitution, people like:

• George Deatherage: “He saw himself a red-blooded, real-American patriot, a dedicated Christian, a fierce protector of (white) Western civilization.”
• Huey Long: This Louisiana politician was an early version of the charismatic narcissistic populist and would-be dictator who formed his own militia and embraced violence against his detractors.
• Father Charles Coughlin: The Rush Limbaugh or Alex Jones of his generation, he was a Catholic priest with a wildly popular radio show who called for violence against “tyrants” after naming FDR and jews as tyrants.
• John Cassidy: He was a self-described "Christian martyr" who wanted to become the "American Fuhrer."
• Senator Ernest Lundeen (R) of Minnesota: Was as corrupt as they come, even taking payroll kickbacks from his own staff, instrumental in promoting support for Hitler in America. Maddow’s description of his death in a suspicious plane crash is as graphic and horrible as can be imagined. Readers may want to look away.
• George Sylvester Viereck: The Nazi agent. He was convicted in June 1943 for violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act. While he was in jail, Viereck's eldest son and namesake, a corporal in the U.S. Army, fought and died for the Allies in Italy.
• Major General George Van Horn Moseley: He was pro-gun but against FDR and anti-redistribution of wealth; he called for the sterilization of any jews who immigrated to the United States.
• Senator Robert Rice Reynolds (D) of North Carolina: He wanted to build a wall around the entire United States, in part to keep out Jews.
• Representative Hamilton Fish (R) of New York: He supported Hitler’s Germany and “was hopeful that tensions over Germany’s designs on Poland could be resolved peacefully, and that Germany’s claims were ‘just.’” His calls: “AWAKE CHRISTIAN AMERICA” and “LET’S SAVE U.S. FOR US.”
• Senator William “Wild Bill” Langer (R) of North Dakota: As governor he was charged, convicted, and sentenced to 18 months in prison, but who declared martial law and tried to declare North Dakota’s independence from the United States. As senator, he sabotaged the investigation of rising fascism.
• Senator Burton K. Wheeler (D) of Montana: an isolationist and propagandist for Germany who was eventually accused of treason. He attempted to use his position in Congress to influence the military, especially the Lend-Lease Act, and prevent America’s support to Britain in WWII.
• Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh: Both were champions of Adolf Hitler and vice versa. Lindbergh zeig heiled at an America First rally with Wheeler. Ford was lauded by Adolf Hitler, who kept a photo of the white Christian nationalist CEO in his office.

America Firsters Wheeler and Lindbergh

There were many more who sought to weaken the Constitution and democracy in favor of autocracy and theocracy.

Expressions of outright antisemitism and fascism by elected officials led to plots of violence on the home front.

Groups such as the “Christian Front” and “Country Gentlemen” planned an armed insurrection, including bombings of Jewish and Leftist establishments as well as newspaper offices. Their hope was similar to Timothy McVeigh’s goal –– to start a race war that would bring down the federal government.

“It was what we’d call today an ‘accelerationist’ strategy,” Maddow explains.

“Much as white supremacists hope terroristic, spectacular, cruel acts toward racial minorities will provoke retaliation and reprisal to touch off a wholesale race war that they are sure they will win, the Christian Fronters believed American could easily be tipped into a war against Jews and communists in which they themselves not only would end up on the winning side, but would be hailed as a heroic vanguard.

“George Van Horn Moseley’s name kept coming up in planning meetings for the attack, because they were still counting on the general to take the reins as America’s new military dictator after the coup was complete.”

There are numerous parallels from the 1930s and ‘40s that continue to smolder: the coup attempt of January 6, other acts of violent extremism in the name of the former President (who calls opponents “vermin” that poison the “blood” of America), and Trump’s desire to call for the Insurrection Act in order to use the military against U.S. citizens in violation of posse comitatus.

Germany justified war in Europe based on grievances and a Big Lie about Jews. Putin did the same thing. And Trump builds his power and funding on perceived grievances and the Big Lie of a stolen election. It is no accident that Trump launched his current presidential campaign at Waco, Texas, on the 30th anniversary of the Branch Davidian tragedy, which was the basis for Timothy McVeigh's grievances.

There are other parallels and similarities linking past and present. Accusers and their two dozen or more sympathizers in Congress chose to investigate the investigators. They called for President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s impeachment based on conspiracies and conjecture without evidence. They used various tactics to disrupt and delay justice in the courts. And they attacked the free press.

The propagandists supported Germany’s efforts to divide American citizens: “A partisan, bickering, demoralized America, the Nazis believed, would be incapable of mounting a successful war effort in Europe.”

Fascists and fundamentalists –– past and present –– tried to recruit military service members and veterans. Eighty and ninety years ago a disproportionate number of law enforcement (“law and ORDER”) personnel supported fascists. Meanwhile, Hollywood –– led by MGM –– and the mainstream media –– led by the Washington Post –– shined a light on the lawbreakers and seditionists. When caught up in the scandal, perpetrators tried to burn evidence, (albeit not in a White House fireplace).

In 1942, federal prosecutors indicted 28 people and charged them (almost RICO-style) with sedition with “intent to interfere with, impair, and influence the loyalty, morale, and discipline of the military and naval forces of the United States.” Prosecutors received hate mail and death threats.

Greedy and self-serving politicians stoked conspiracies and fears to hold on to power, especially fear of immigrants, communists, socialists, and Jewish people. Father Coughlin and others attempted to form a third party of Christian nationalists to compete against President Roosevelt, claiming FDR was a Jew.

But there could be signs of hope: The election of Nov. 7, 1944 proved the strength of democracy over the glowing coals of fascism, when FDR won a landslide victory. “The president who had been leading the country in the war against the Nazis, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, won an unprecedented fourth term, with 432 electoral votes to Thomas E. Dewey’s 99,” Maddow writes. “Roosevelt’s Democrats gained twenty-two seats in the House and protected their whopping nineteen-vote cushion in the Senate.”

Rachel Maddow speaks with Lt. Col. Andy Gerlach of the South Dakota Army National Guard in Afghanistan in July 2010. (Sgt. Rebecca Linder)

Maddow is also author of “Bagman” and “Drift.” She is a big supporter of military service members, veterans, and the Constitution. She bemoans the gap between civilians and their military, and she calls for accountability, transparency, and maximal diplomacy before American men and women are sent into war.

Both the Prequel book and preceding Ultra podcast feature Maddow’s storytelling at its best, but the book may better. While the serialized Prequel podcast broke ground on the compelling story of the threat to democracy from within, the book really fleshes out the story as only a book can, complete with extensive notes, a helpful index, compelling photos, and detail we can read and will want to re-read. This is a book that can help every American understand the threat of the fires of antisemitism, fascism, and authoritarianism.

In 2023 and 2024 the embers are glowing brighter.

Exceptional When United

Review by Bill Doughty––

Liz Cheney and her dad, former Vice President Dick Cheney, show unbridled passion for their country in “Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America” (Threshold Editions, Simon & Schuster, 2015).

Published a year before Donald J. Trump became president, the Cheneys slam both President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton throughout this book and conclude, “Our next president must be committed to restoring America’s power and strength.”

The Cheneys blame Obama and Clinton for alienating allies, weakening the military, and failing at nuclear arms control. “Maintaining America’s nuclear superiority is more important than ever, but President Obama has abandoned this goal.” He should not have signed the New START Treaty with the Russians or agreed to terms with Iran to prevent development of nuclear weapons, they say.

As for weakening the military: In 2011 Obama “announced a broad shift in American policy, a ‘pivot to Asia” … Particularly on the military front, however, there was a decided lack of follow through.”

Furthermore, Obama did not confront China strongly enough, in the Cheneys’ opinion. "Exceptional" predicts China would have a stronger navy than the U.S. Navy in the Pacific by 2020.

“Ignoring international law, the Chinese have claimed sovereignty over most of the South China Sea and are embarked upon a massive land reclamation and construction program to bolster these claims.” The U.S. Navy conducted six Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPS) during President Obama’s presidency.

Seaman Malik Flynn transfers a pallet aboard the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Antietam (CG 54) during a replenishment-at-sea with dry cargo ship USNS Amelia Earhart (T-AKE-6) in the Philippine Sea, June 29, 2022, underway in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific. (MC3 Santiago Navarro)

‘Exceptional’ History Lessons

“Exceptional” opens with a jolt in the late 1930s with the rise of Hitler and Roosevelt’s resolve to wake up U.S. citizens to the threat of fascism and ethno-nationalism in Europe.

“Roosevelt’s determination to mobilize the nation was crucial to the success of the effort he knew we needed to mount. It had not been an easy or clear path getting to this point. The American people were war-weary and isolationist sentiment was strong. In the aftermath of World War I we had demobilized and retreated behind our oceans, hoping, as George Washington had advised, to avoid entangling our ‘peace and prosperity’ in the fortunes of Europe. While we were turned inward, Adolf Hitler began his Blitzkrieg.”

In rapid time, readers receive a history of World War II –– with emphasis given to the Lend-Lease Act (where we see parallels to current support to Ukraine), Battle of Midway, and D-Day.

“June 6, 1944, was a day when America’s greatness was on full display, from the unparalleled heroism of the soldiers who stormed the beaches; to the ingenuity of men like Henry Higgins, who invented the landing craft that made the invasion possible; to the courage and fortitude of the Rangers who took the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc; to the business leaders like Bill Knudsen and Henry Kaiser who had driven American industry to turn out the thousands of ships ad planes necessary to win the war; to the commanders like Marshall, Eisenhower, and Omar Bradley who built the force and planned and commanded the invasion. The world had never seen anything like it.”

The history lessons continue through the Cold War: “the triumph of freedom over tyranny, of the courage of millions who fought the oppression of Soviet dictatorship around globe, and of the importance of achieving peace through strength.

Liz and Dick Cheney, 2015

Naturally, the Cheneys defend invading Iraq in the aftermath of the attacks of 9/11: “We did the right thing.” And they say it was a mistake to remove troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

They devote several pages to Benghazi, the need for the Guantanamo detention camp, justification for “enhanced interrogation,” and recommendations to continue increased funding to fight ISIS.

Father and daughter denigrate Obama and Clinton dozens of times in this book after their presentation of post-WWII history.

Their vitriol seems boundless. They accuse Obama of having a “prominent” role, along with others, who “want us to see the United States as having had and continuing to have a malign role in the world … In the books they are assigned, in the tests they take, and in the instruction they receive, our children and grandchildren are too often being told that the legacy they ave inherited is a shameful one.”

Yet, they admit:

 “Neither we nor our children and grandchildren should be uncritical of our country. Despite the self-evident truth that ‘all men are created equal,’ slavery continued after we declared our independence. The Constitution, signed in 1787, failed to end the system of slavery nor did it address the oppression of women. Among the wonders of this country, however, is that that document, our Constitution, was the instrument for remedying our failure, for abolishing slavery, granting women the right to vote, and working to ensure equality of opportunity for all. That we are a resilient country, able to correct wrongs, is among the lessons we should embrace and our children should learn. We have worked to make ourselves better –– and we have succeeded. No nation has ever been freer or more prosperous. No nation has ever worked so successfully to extend freedom to others. No nation, in the history of mankind, has ever been such a force for good.”

The Cheneys denigrate Obama for his nuanced view of America’s exceptionalism, including what Obama calls, the “distortions of politics, the sins of hubris, (and) the corrupting effects of fear.”

Then-Senator Barack Obama is sworn in by then-Vice President Dick Cheney, Jan. 3, 2005, as the Obama family look on.

Obama and Exceptionalism

The Cheneys had to admit that Obama said in a NATO meeting in Afghanistan, “I believe in American exceptionalism.” Obama said the same thing March 7, 2015, in his speech at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, Selma, Alabama, for the 50th Anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery Marches.

Obama compared Selma to other significant historical and historic sites such as Concord and Lexington, Independence Hall, Appomattox, Gettysburg, Seneca Falls, Kitty Hawk, and Cape Canaveral. A willingness to risk everything (personified by Liz Cheney in 2022) in order to protect the republic, ensure justice, and bring about positive change is what makes the United States exceptional, according to Obama.

The most recent Sisters In Law podcast recommended listening to Obama’s Selma speech for Independence Day, July 4th.

The Obamas and Congressman John Lewis lead the 50th anniversary commemoration in Selma, March 7, 2015.

Here’s an excerpt related to Obama’s view of American exceptionalism, starting with our collective duty to recognize how far our country has evolved and improved over time:

“We do a disservice to the cause of justice by intimating that bias and discrimination are immutable, that racial division is inherent to America. If you think nothing’s changed in the past 50 years, ask somebody who lived through the Selma or Chicago or Los Angeles of the 1950s. Ask the female CEO who once might have been assigned to the secretarial pool if nothing’s changed. Ask your gay friend if it’s easier to be out and proud in America now than it was thirty years ago. To deny this progress, this hard-won progress -– our progress –- would be to rob us of our own agency, our own capacity, our responsibility to do what we can to make America better.

“We know the march is not yet over. We know the race is not yet won. We know that reaching that blessed destination where we are judged, all of us, by the content of our character requires admitting as much, facing up to the truth. ‘We are capable of bearing a great burden,’ James Baldwin once wrote, ‘once we discover that the burden is reality and arrive where reality is.’ There’s nothing America can’t handle if we actually look squarely at the problem. And this is work for all Americans, not just some. Not just whites. Not just blacks. If we want to honor the courage of those who marched that day, then all of us are called to possess their moral imagination. All of us will need to feel as they did the fierce urgency of now. All of us need to recognize as they did that change depends on our actions, on our attitudes, the things we teach our children. And if we make such an effort, no matter how hard it may sometimes seem, laws can be passed, and consciences can be stirred, and consensus can be built.”

Obama spoke about the importance of voting and voting rights in order to bring about change and protect our democracy from authoritarian aristocracy and autocracy.

“Fellow marchers, so much has changed in 50 years. We have endured war and we’ve fashioned peace. We’ve seen technological wonders that touch every aspect of our lives. We take for granted conveniences that our parents could have scarcely imagined. But what has not changed is the imperative of citizenship; that willingness of a 26-year-old deacon, or a Unitarian minister, or a young mother of five to decide they loved this country so much that they’d risk everything to realize its promise.

“That’s what it means to love America. That’s what it means to believe in America.

"That’s what it means when we say America is exceptional.

“For we were born of change. We broke the old aristocracies, declaring ourselves entitled not by bloodline, but endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights. We secure our rights and responsibilities through a system of self-government, of and by and for the people. That’s why we argue and fight with so much passion and conviction –– because we know our efforts matter. We know America is what we make of it.”

His speech only gets better as he shows how much we all have in common, again recognizing how much our nation has improved over time.

The Last Word –– July 4th

During an appearance on The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell this week, Isabel Wilkerson, author of “Caste,” spoke about how this Independence Day is a watershed year.

“This particular Fourth of July is a very significant one, because this is the year when the United States will finally have been a free and independent nation for as long as slavery lasted on this soil. It`s humbling, and it is really staggering to think about the fact that we are alive at this inflection point, this moment, where the United States, we think of it as, you know, 1776 is a long time ago. We think about the country as being here for a very long time. And this is a sobering reminder of exactly how long slavery lasted, it lasted for 246 years from 1619 until 1865, with the 13th Amendment that finally ended legal slavery. And then the United States, it`s 246 years, and the United States turns 246 on Monday.”

Perhaps Wilkerson is right, and this exceptional watershed Independence Day will mark an epochal shift of positive change in 2022. “Caste” is one of the best books I’ve read in the past year, hopeful, powerful, and inspiring. “Exceptional,” by comparison –– while at times celebrating America’s greatness –– falls unfortunately into bitterness, pettiness, and disunited negativity. Quite a contrast.