Author Archives: Sunflowers

There are at least two Americas. I grew up in the one where the American dream flourished. My father was an automotive mechanic and he did better in material terms than his father who had been a small farmer. I did all the right things: studied hard, went to college, got a job, worked hard. Now I find that dream of doing better than my father is broken. Not just for me but for America. Starting around 1978 a whole generation will not do better than our parents. For the first time in our history. Our children will not either. Unless something changes. Now I work half the day and the other half sit at my kitchen table applying for more work. I sit in broken America and the view out across my backyard to the neighbors looks fine unless you look down and notice that I have no grass. I stopped watering the back yard in the first year after the layoff. The weeds are getting by. So am I.