The Civil War as America’s Second Chance
At Trenton and Independence Hall, Lincoln wondered at the willingness of our patriotic ancestors to imperil their lives for a nation that did not yet and perhaps would never exist.
At Trenton and Independence Hall, Lincoln wondered at the willingness of our patriotic ancestors to imperil their lives for a nation that did not yet and perhaps would never exist.
In a museum, we often try to understand what a painting means and where it is coming from, placing ourselves at the center of the experience. This sculpture removed me completely. I was forced to look outward instead of inward, as if I were seeing a world that existed without me.
The real world is filled with transformative “second chance” stories—true tales of people who at some point in their lives answer the summons of a new path.
Published less than a year after her loss to Donald Trump in the 2024 election, 107 Days is an extraordinary feat in its turnaround time. However, in its haste to hit the shelves, there may not be enough distance in former Vice President Kamala Harris’s assessment of her campaign to truly offer the clear vision of hindsight.
Life after prison often felt like one step forward, four back. In the desert years, what made Carole Alden’s life meaningful was trying to make conditions better for her animals. While the world struggled with wars, political, economic, and social chaos, she was grateful for qualified solitude.
More than ten thousand species are now critically endangered. Humans have clear-cut forests, paved grassland, overharvested, overfished, and overhunted. Much of the existing ground is being strangled by honeysuckle, kudzu, vetch, cheatgrass, and various exotics. Can we get a second chance?
Of course knives have utility. It is just that not everything they do is ultimately useful, or always under our control.
Charles W. Chesnutt envied the White professional writers around him who could make a living from writing, who controlled the literary magazine market and the book publishing industry. Chesnutt gained more leverage, little enough though it was, in the White book and magazine publishing than any Black writer of his time. He never could live from his professional writing despite the acclaim he received from the White literary establishment during the heyday of his career.
I treasure memories of tomahawk-throwing at Fort de Chartres, sitting in a voyageur canoe, and watching costumed troops drill. In some way I am still trying to unpack, it helped set up my young mind to think of this part of the Midwest as perpetually colonial and the West as something for the future.
Not once did its wood frame break down, groan under weight, or so much as emit a creaking whine. Credit must be given to the Danes who designed it and then brought it into existence. But credit must also be given to its generous spirit. My old sofa, dubbed “El Trono,” never gave up. And I never gave up on “El Trono.”