Academic Rants

  Two recently published Op-Eds, “How Gun Violence Changed My Father, Ronald Reagan, and Our Family”, by Patti Davis July 5, 2022 New York Times and “Baseball should Honor Larry Doby, another pioneer in integrating the sport” by Dave Kaplan and Joseph Thomas Moore July 4, 2022 Chicago Sun Times seemingly have very little to do with each other but I would argue they are strongly connected. On this July 4th holiday the stories of the Heartland are speaking a bit louder than usual. I encourage you to read each article. They are well written and tell important stories about what makes America unique and special. On July 5, 1947, Larry Doby became the second African American to play in the major leagues, and the first to play in the American League. As a pinch-hitter he struck out. A day earlier, on the 4th of July, Doby, born in the segregated South Carolina and raised in New Jersey, played for the Newark Eagles in the segregated Negro Leagues hitting a home run at his last at-bat. Doby’s

  Over the past year I have argued that American exceptionalism has been eroded and perhaps never existed. Daily, I have hoped that my writings would be proven false. I’ve wanted to be challenged on my views about the pandemic, class inequality, gun violence, police brutality, racism, climate awareness, elective politics, and most recently the Supreme Court. Yet, since 2015, I’ve been losing faith in America as the wrong things keep happening. Other historians keep suggesting that there is still time to make changes. They have written that the more progressive voices are wrong and that the center will hold. Their views are that this happens with every nation and within every century. America is simply getting ready for a course correction. They point to the Roaring 20s, decade before the Great Depression, and the Gilded Age to highlight similarities. In contrast, I believe that the center is cracking, that the more conservative historians are wrong and that the American experiment is o