Today is Leap Day--the last day of February. It is 48 days (and counting) until we plan to pull in to Junction City to see our new home. Our friends Gary and Judy pulled out this morning, headed for Kerrville. We miss them already. They will be going to Junction City this June for some warranty work on their air conditioners, but by then we'll be in California. We'll see them next January when they arrive for a two-month stay at Bentsen Palm Village again.
Wednesday night we usually attend Joe Saltel's dance, but tonight we went to UTPA instead, for the Distinguished Speaker Series. We met Hardy and Judy and John and Sandy there just after 6:00 p.m., although the talk wasn't scheduled to begin until 7:30. That's because students, faculty, and staff have first claim on the seats in the Fine Arts Auditorium. Community members line up in a separate line and are allowed in only if there are seats remaining. We wanted to be near the front of the line, and we were.
That gave us a chance to chat with our friends and catch up on their lives. Walenters still don't have a rear window in their fifth wheel. It was broken out a month ago, and ever since there's been a comedy of errors. Replacement windows arrive either broken or the wrong size. Meanwhile, John finally replaced the plastic sheeting he had put in to keep the weather out with plexiglass cut to fit and seated properly in the hole. They're planning to wait until they're back home to have that window glazed.
The speaker tonight was Tom Friedman, foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times and the winner of five Pullitzer prizes. He talked about his recently published book (written with Michal Mandelbaum): That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back. Friedman definitely connected with his audience, which showed their appreciation by spontaneous applause. He got a standing ovation at the end of the talk. One of his main points is that we now live in a hyperconnected world, which offers us both challenges and opportunities.
Chris called tonight to let us know that Annie will be attending the Harriet Tubman Leadership Academy for Young Women (and not Cleveland High School) next year. Chris and Annie went to an information night at the school tonight. Annie is very excited. The school is an all-girl school with an emphasis on math, science, and leadership.
Book summary from Amazon:
America is in trouble. We face four major challenges on which our future depends, and we are failing to meet them—and if we delay any longer, soon it will be too late for us to pass along the American dream to future generations.
In That Used to Be Us, Thomas L. Friedman, one of our most influential columnists, and Michael Mandelbaum, one of our leading foreign policy thinkers, offer both a wake-up call and a call to collective action. They analyze the four challenges we face—globalization, the revolution in information technology, the nation’s chronic deficits, and our pattern of excessive energy consumption—and spell out what we need to do now to sustain the American dream and preserve American power in the world. They explain how the end of the Cold War blinded the nation to the need to address these issues seriously, and how China’s educational successes, industrial might, and technological prowess remind us of the ways in which “that used to be us.” They explain how the paralysis of our political system and the erosion of key American values have made it impossible for us to carry out the policies the country urgently needs.
And yet Friedman and Mandelbaum believe that the recovery of American greatness is within reach. They show how America’s history, when properly understood, offers a five-part formula for prosperity that will enable us to cope successfully with the challenges we face. They offer vivid profiles of individuals who have not lost sight of the American habits of bold thought and dramatic action. They propose a clear way out of the trap into which the country has fallen, a way that includes the rediscovery of some of our most vital traditions and the creation of a new thirdparty movement to galvanize the country.
That Used to Be Us is both a searching exploration of the American condition today and a rousing manifesto for American renewal.
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