Open Letter to the Newsvine Community

I definitly agree with you oldfogey. Thanks for the letter.

Thanks for your statesman-like sentiments. You're moving in the right direction for me!

Two thumbs up :)

If I could respectfully disagree I would, but as, on principle I share your outlook, I will instead burrow further into newsvine and attempt to add to it's function as an incubus of respectful consideration.
Just as there's always someone more selfishly aggressive than me here, so are there examples of measure and restraint. I'm here to learn. Thanks for redeeming Texas. :)

I am with you, Oldfogey. I hope others can take your message to heart, as well.

Somehow this just seemed appropriate to me to add here?

"Patriotism is the conviction that your country is superior to all others because you were born in it." George Bernard Shaw

Ok. You moved me to such a degree a comment would not suffice.

You Have the Solution Right Now

Thank you for the reminder OldFogey. I needed that.

I like your style, man.

You were a great employer and you will make a great congressman...Read your letter to Bill Gates...it was great!

A letter full of wisdom. Thanks oldfogey.

OldFogey wrote:

This morning I received an email from Mike D. that blew my socks off.

You too? I received something similar (though it involved a few other issues) on Thursday night/Friday morning. What I am blown away about, mostly, I think... is that the developers here (including the CEO!) don't just -say- they are open to ideas and feedback from the community, they actually -are- listening and reading along. This is pretty much unheard of in online communities, and I had such a grin on my face all weekend because of that. And I hope that remains a constant here... it's what will keep me active in the community we're building. And yes, I say "we're" because this is not just a creation of programmers, it is all of us, too, who share in that process.

Thanks for writing this, Oldfogey.

Although all of us probably fall short sometimes, to strive for this goal is a worthwhile cause. Potshots, nit-picking and flame wars might be instantly gratifiying, but in the long run, they are damaging to political debate. Our country is at it's strongest when we are able to keep our minds open, respect each other and work together.

Oldfogey - a great letter in the positive, humanitarian, libertarian spirit of the America that is much loved around the world - as a non-American but one who dearly loves that spirit of "my" America and exemplified by its great humanitarian writers (e.g. Toni Morrison, Carson McCullers, James Baldwin ...), leaders (Ike, JFK, Martin Luther King ...), entertainers (Burl Ives and Paul Robeson to the Dixie Chicks), sportsmen (e.g. Muhammed Ali) and scientists (so many) and the endlessly earnest and positive decency of my American friends, relatives and connections, the key quote for me is:

I am asking that American Newsviners join in as many harmonious ways as possible to bring our country back to the dream we all had or have.

There is no doubt that America's global "image" has suffered severely since the fall of Communism. Very pro-American, French, Jewish scholar Emmanuel Todd (who in 1975 correctly predicted the fall of Communism) has analyzed this acutely in his book "After the Empire. The Breakdown of the American Order" (published in French, Apres l'Empire in 2002; English Translation, Constable, London with 2004 Afterword). In short - oversimplified - Todd argues that America was rich, "universalist" and needed and loved by the World but post-Soviet Communism decided on an expensive, counterproductive, "differentialist" (intrinsically racist in popular language) Imperial role and is now in huge debt (a huge consumer of global goods paid for by petrodollar and other external investment in America), un-needed (indeed feared through what Todd regards as a misplaced, intrinsically fraudulent War on Terror but which is actually horrendously destructive, fear-inspiring "theatrical micromilitarism" against impoverished, weak Muslim countries) and un-loved (clearly so in the Muslim world where even its friends feel humiliated by its policies and deeply and disappointedly so by those who loved humanitarian, universalist America, JFK's Camelot and the business-like humanity of Jimmy Carter).

A key Todd observation (p117):

"Becaue Israel is becoming less virtuous at the same time as America, the latter approves of Israel's increasingly ferocious behaviour towards the Palestinians. America is sliding toward a firmer belief in the inequality of men and believes less and less in the unity of the human species".

Corporate and military-industrial complex domination (that Ike warned about) is now entrenched (see John Perkins' "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man"; Ebury Press, London, 2005), compounded by a dominant simplistic, mindlessly hedonistic, introspection- and empathy-denying ideological "infantalism" (see Walter Davis' "Death's Dream Kingdom. The American Psyche since 9-11"; Pluto, London, 2006).

Monolithic Corporate Mainstream media severely limits "effective free speech" yet it is "free speech" and scientific analysis that made America great - and loved. However great innovations such as Newsvine help to enlarge a Hole in the Wall of Silence and hence the rational public informing, analysis, and debate required for sensible systemic change.

The road back will be tough - but those around the world who love and have faith in the "best of America" are with you all the way.

The road back will be tough - but those around the world who love and have faith in the "best of America" are with you all the way.

I think that this says far more eloquently anything I could come up with to describe how this letter made me feel.

After reading a letter purported to have been published in a Pakistani newspaper about who Americans are (which left me feeling somewhat nauseous) I am glad that the balance has been redressed.

Thank you oldfogey for putting this up, and for taking the time to write it.