After traveling from the Rocky Mountains to Manhattan, Ira Chernus questions whether America really needs a national identity:
Why do thoughtful people like Richard Hughes, and so many others, lie awake at night worrying about “what holds us together”? What would be wrong with imagining “the United States” as merely a loose administrative structure for a group of quite autonomous regions? Or perhaps an agency for safeguarding human rights and redistributing wealth in the interests of greater equity, or an entity serving only the purpose of protecting its various regions from threats coming from outside U.S. borders, or a vast debating society where we congenially discuss competing myths and values, or any number of other functions one might think of that “the United States” could play, while leaving regions as the principal source of political-cultural identity?
(Photo of Jasper Johns’ Map by Flickr user Krishna81)
The Dish 