Wood Chips
From the shores of Lake Superior (The Third Coast)
There’s plenty of good advice on how to keep personally steady that keeps coming during these days of the summer pandemic. But there’s yet another level of awakening the many of us are now experiencing with the recent civil unrest and spikes in COVID-19.
One could call it an “unmasking” of our collective history and national self-understanding. It’s not so different up here in the Upper Peninsula where much of our “formal” history is linked to lumber and mining barons, to names like Schoolcraft, Peter White, and Henry Ford, most of which we honor for their social, but mostly economic, achievements.
Increasing numbers of folks are realizing that there is another history beneath our more romanticized past: The struggle of labor unions that for years sought to bring a balance of power to corporations, the deep wounds still carried by five Federally recognized American Indian tribes in our region, the legacy of pollution and toxic waste left behind by once extractive mining operations.
Last night I had a telephone conversation with a friend who grew up in a far-off remote and isolated Asian country. He raised this question. “How is it that as a country the United States spends more on its medical care for its citizens than any other nation in the world, yet we have the highest of all per capita infection rates for COVID-19?”
Across the country, voices are rising: “We can do better.” Part of the beginning of any healing will need to be a new level of listening and truth-telling with each other. We are in the midst of a “Great Transition.” We’ll need to go deeper to build a better dream. How we see ourselves and the rest of the world will never be the same. That is a good thing.
Jon
The Cedar Tree Institute
“Wood Chips” is a series of brief reflections written by Jon Magnuson, Director of the Cedar Tree Institute.
