Status Updates From Sunday After the War

Listening to their recital I got the impression that the whole neighborhood was crippled and riddled with malignant diseases. Everybody with whom they had any dealings ... every one carried about him perpetually a little flower which grew out of his own body and which was named after one or the other of the familiar maladies.... Those who weren't crippled, diseased or insane were out of work and living on relief.

Here we are, we the people of the United States: the greatest people on earth, so we think. We have everything.... We have land, water, sky and all that goes with it. We could become the great shining example of the world.... But there are ghosts all about, ghosts whom we can't seem to lay hands on. We are not happy, not contented, not radiant, not fearless.