The Lost Conversation


By Winslow Myers


Eight days of rafting down the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon with my daughter promised to be an exceptional experience. Introducing myself to a fellow voyager, a Texan, I joked that surely Texas wasn’t really planning to secede, because it would be a pain to have to obtain a visa to visit Austin. This didn’t seem to go over very well. Perhaps I had overreached. I retreated for the rest of the trip into an affable neutrality.

Turns out others did the same. There would be an occasional dig at Biden’s senility, or a whisper about Trump’s criminality, but soon a taboo began to govern the otherwise warm and caring sociability of our group. Even though we were a diverse assembly of 30 people, gay and straight, black and white, aged 9 to 81, a freewheeling dialogue about politics or religion in the group at large was strictly off the conversational table. In spite of us all being citizens of one country floating down wild rapids together in our country’s most magnificent national park, on a deeper level we remained as alienated as groundhogs and gardeners.

And that was fair enough as far as it went: people had paid for a challenging outdoor adventure, not a seminar on current events or conflicting epistemologies. Both of which continued to unfold at top speed without us. While we were without internet in the Canyon, Roe was overturned, and the poised young assistant to Mark Meadows tied the ex-President ever closer to the planning of the January 6th insurrection.

Progressives opened political conversations among themselves and no doubt conservatives did also. But because I find loyalty to the ex-President or to gun rights so mysterious, as a progressive I would have welcomed some sort of dialogue with opposing views, though we all sensed it was a bridge too far.

What we did have in common was the experience of the river and the canyon. Sleeping outside in the dry 90 degree heat at night, we shared the closeness of the stars ringed by looming black towers of stone, stars that included a spiral arm of the Milky Way, a faint mist of light that feathered across the more familiar constellations.

One of our participants was heard to assert that creation began 6000 years ago. During a hike up a small side-canyon, our guides pointed out a visible manifestation of the Great Unconformity, where quartz-like crystals rested directly on schist, indicating a geological gap, an erosion of evidence of a billion and a half years of change. My daughter, a trained biologist, was over the moon to have found a small rock with fossil ancestors of sea stars compressed into it before there was even a canyon at all but only layers of sediment spread out under a vast shallow sea.

The scientific evidence of a 13.85 billion-year unfolding from matter to cellular life to mammals with a capacity to care for their offspring seems to erase a lot of unnecessary conflict between science and religion—again a rich possible theme for a dialogue that never was. The factions in our group seemed fatally inhibited, perceiving each other as an immovable “they.”

Still, there were unmistakable “we” experiences. Midway down the river came one that topped even the raft-swallowing green rapids and the mile-high stepped cliffs glowing in the morning sunlight. We had stopped at yet another dry side-channel. After a short hike up through narrowing walls of smooth stone, with no advance warning, we came upon a string quartet playing Elgar! Waterproofing their instruments, the musicians had arrived safely by raft to concertize in this most wildly improbable of venues.

The music drew us into the larger conversation of the universe with itself: an enigmatically self-organizing system had crushed and melted and swirled titanic masses of rock, which over hundreds of millions of years sank below and rose again above great seas, leaching out elements that combined into the first forms of cellular life—life that became self-sentient and sawed down other woody forms of life to fashion cellos to play notes derived from harmonies already built into the cosmos, harmonies drawn forth into distinct combinations by the mind of Bach or Elgar, now conveyed to insect-bitten, sweaty river voyagers by these generous performers.

Call this unfolding creative process God or Evolution or what you will, we were in it together, regardless of the lack of a conversation that might have led to some affirmation of our group’s interdependence as citizens of one country, or at least as humans on one planet. Secession from the universe is not an option—even for Texas.

Winslow Myers, author of “Living Beyond War: A Citizen’s Guide,” serves on the Advisory Board of the War Preventive Initiative.

More Resources


03/29/2024
Behind Scenes Stories of Censorship


more info


03/29/2024
Where RFK Jr. Goes From Here


more info


03/29/2024
Will the RFK Factor Make a Difference in 2024?
Robert Kennedy Jr. leads the highest-polling independent presidential ticket in over 30 years

more info


03/29/2024
Democrats May Keep the Senate--With a Little GOP Help
The inexplicable determination of the party's voters to pick unstable provocateurs might be the only path Democrats have to hanging onto their narrow and very much endangered Senate majority.

more info


03/29/2024
You Count Votes Over and Over Until They Add Up Right
By John Kass March 27, 2024 Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker-the perpetually frightened rich kid born on third base thinking he hit a triple-has a big fat political problem. He's hosting the Democratic National Convention, his big fat coming out party in Chicago, in August. His fantasy? Becoming president of the United States of America. As he's planning his party, America ... Read More

more info


03/29/2024
The Long Road Back for the Port of Baltimore
For the moment, Maryland officials are focused on crisis management.

more info


03/29/2024
Enough Already
City leaders keep searching for the root cause of crime-they should look in the mirror.

more info


03/28/2024
The Democrats' Abundance Problem Revisited
Last week, I started revisiting my "Three Point Plan to Fix the Democrats and Their Coalition" from October of 2022. A brisk tour of the polling and political data suggested the Democrats are still in need of serious reform and that the three point plan is as relevant as ever. Here's the very short version of the plan:

more info


03/28/2024
Are Democrats Still Stuck With Biden?
Voters don't think much of the president but also remain wary of the obvious replacement.

more info


03/28/2024
What the Polls Say: RFK Jr. Hurting Biden, Helping Trump
In October, when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. abandoned his primary challenge to Joe Biden and instead launched an independent candidacy, the initial conventional wisdom was that he might hurt Donald Trump more than Biden.

more info


03/28/2024
The Twilight of the Republican 'McLeadership'
The Trump team is steadily purging the Republican leadership of holdovers from past decades. The departure of McCarthy, McDaniel, and McConnell is part of exorcising the legacy of a more important Mc whose influence is still felt in the U.S. Senate: John McCain.

more info


03/28/2024
The Funniest Media Story of the Year?
The following three things were obvious before MSNBC puked on itself in its public divorce with former RNC chief Ronna McDaniel, but aren't we glad the network didn't notice? More later, but briefly:

more info


03/28/2024
Abridging, Not Coercing, Is First Amendment's Yardstick
Under the First Amendment, the government may not abridge the freedom of speech, whether that abridging is done by coercing internet platforms or by getting them to cooperate in government efforts to censor the public.

more info


03/28/2024
Trade Cheaters Are Killing Aluminum Industry Jobs
Aluminum industry workers stand ready to do their part to move the nation forward. They just need the federal government to enforce trade laws.

more info


03/28/2024
It's Time for an Immigration Moratorium
An effective freeze on immigration could revitalize our national culture, politics, and economy before it's too late.

more info



Custom Search

More Politics Articles:

Related Articles

Jimmy Lai, The Billionaire Freedom Fighter


Hong Kong police arrested billionaire publisher Jimmy Lai on August 10, releasing him two days later. His "crime" was to express opposition to the mainland Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) aggression against Hong Kong - both in person and through the newspapers and magazines that he owns.

Sorry, Environmentalists. There's Nothing Good About COVID-19


Environmentalists think they've found an upside to COVID-19. Although the outbreak has claimed over 180,000 American lives and upended the economy, it has also caused pollution to plummet in cities across the country.

The Paradox of Prosperity


In Friedrich Hayek's 1954 book Capitalism and the Historians, the late French philosopher and political economist Bertrand de Jouvenel noted a baffling historical trend: "Strangely enough, the fall from favor of the money-maker coincides with an increase in his social usefulness."

Support Freelancers to Revive the Post-Pandemic Economy


More than 50 million Americans have filed unemployment claims since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. And business bankruptcies are expected to rise nearly 50 percent this year.

Why Fracking is a Big Issue


In my previous column, I described the “paradox of prosperity”—the strange tendency of many people who have benefited from economic advances to denounce and vilify the source of their prosperity, a sort of “bite-the-hand-that-feeds-you” phenomenon.

No Baby Boom This Year; TheVirus Has Put a Damper on Pregnancies


We’re fast approaching the ninth month of the COVID-19 lockdown and if we were going to see a coronavirus Baby Boom this year, it would be starting now, says Rebecca Weber, CEO of the Association of Mature American Citizens [AMAC].

Importing Drug Price Controls Means Fewer Cures and Restricted Access


In what is likely his final major initiative on domestic policy, President Trump last week signed an executive order aimed at reducing costs to Americans for certain Medicare drugs.

The Problematical COVID-19 Relief Legislation


Americans are known to have big hearts. When disaster strikes, Americans unselfishly and heroically extend a helping hand. That certainly has been the case in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nobody wants to see those who have lost income through no fault of their own also lose their place of residence or their car or even their ability to afford food.

Trump's Final Blow to Patients With HIV


The day before Donald Trump left the White House, his administration dealt one final, brutal blow to some of America's most vulnerable patients. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced a policy that, if implemented, will put numerous lifesaving drugs off-limits to Medicare recipients.

Trump's Last-Minute Medicare Rule Deserves a Swift Reversal


On Donald Trump's last full day in office, his administration announced a policy change that would make it easier for insurers to deny medicine to vulnerable Medicare beneficiaries. Those most affected will include people with mental health disorders.

Bioethics in a Brave New World


In the late 1980s, as a pre-med major at the University of Pittsburgh, I pulled many all-nighters at Scaife Hall at Pitt’s School of Medicine. My friend Dirk and I knew the only way we would ever make breakfast at the cafeterias at the Towers or Lothrop dorm-halls was by staying up all night studying and then sauntering in zombie-like at 6:00 a.m. for eggs and pancakes. Otherwise, the typical early morning fare for me and my buddies was “O Fries” from the iconic Original Hot Dog Shop, washed down with cheap beer around 2:00 a.m.

Court Packing 2.0: Why the Supreme Court Should Not Be Changed


Six months ago, the idea of expanding the size of the U.S. Supreme Court was side-stepped by presidential candidate Joe Biden, and the issue seemed to wane. But now, “court packing” has surfaced once again—and in two forms. The first is an executive order from President Biden creating a commission to study possible reforms of the Supreme Court. The second is legislation proposed by progressive Democrats to increase the court’s size by four new justices.

Protect the Bayh-Dole Act for Our Health and Wealth


In the waning days of the Trump administration, the Commerce Department proposed a rule to strengthen the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980. If the Biden administration approves the rule -- with a few semantic changes -- Americans will continue to enjoy the fruits of university research. If it doesn't, we could lose the public-private sector alliances that turbo-charge American innovation.

Congress Must Reject Legislation that Guts Medical Innovation


Health and Human Services just issued a five-year plan to eliminate viral hepatitis, a chronic liver disease that afflicts 3.3 million Americans. The plan seeks to boost hepatitis vaccination rates, make it easier for patients to get tests and treatments, and spur more research and development of cures.

Stripping Intellectual Property Rights Would Prevent Life-Saving Cures for America's Seniors


The Biden administration just announced its support for a global effort to cancel intellectual property protections on Covid-19 vaccines.