Several recent letters have suggested that we, the people, rise up and take our country back. I don't get it. No foreign entity has overtaken us; there are no enemy troops patrolling our streets!
What I think has happened is that some of us have discovered that while we weren't looking, society has moved on. "We The People" have changed.
"We The People" now includes people we didn't think about before. Gay people. Biracial people. People who speak a language other than English at home. People who eat things some of us don't eat. People who worship in ways that some of us don't. People who see things in ways that some of us just didn't think about in the past. "We The People" has become more diverse, and some of us are having trouble adjusting to the changes.
At the beginning of the 20th century, most Americans lived in rural areas. Two world wars later, most of us live in cities. The countryside is beginning to hollow out.
No matter what happens to our society in the future, we are likely to be increasingly urban, or urban in orientation.
Cityfolk, and those who identify with citified ways of life and living, will dominate the future. It may well be up to us "in the sticks" to understand the new facts of life and adjust to what's going on.
It's true: What was will never be again, and what's next will be different from everything that went before it.
Stanley Gould
Williamsport
Submitted by Virtual Newsroom
