Sublime

Does American history prove these truths, or does it belie them?

Nature takes one toll, malice another. History is the study of what remains, what’s left behind,

Nearly half of colonial New Englanders’ wealth would come from sugar grown by West Indian slaves.

Unreasonable distributions of wealth have always turned their fire on reason.

Can a political society really be governed by reflection and election, by reason and truth, rather than by accident and violence, by prejudice and deceit? Is there any arrangement of government—any constitution—by which it’s possible for a people to rule themselves, justly and fairly, and as equals, through the exercise of judgment and care? Or are

we have to search for a more objectively true account.

And this is where each of us bears a responsibility that grows more important every day. Just as we have a responsibility to safeguard our environment, our neighborhoods, and our communities, we have a responsibility to safeguard truth and history so they will be shared resources for generations to come, and not the purview of a small subset of spe

O’Connor’s “Good Country People,”