To Hell with Earth Day; Long Live Arbor Day!
Once upon a time in America, schoolchildren celebrated a lovely little holiday called Arbor Day. The young scholars would sing songs about Johnny Appleseed, recite Joyce Kilmer into the ground, learn the difference between an oak and a maple, and bundle up against the spring chill to go outside and plant an actual tree.
Ain’t No Anglos at the Park
PHOENIX, AZ. If you know me, and if you are not my insurance agent, you may also know that I occasionally enjoy a good...
Life Amid the Suicide Machines
JEFFERSON COUNTY, KANSAS. In small town America, business owners get to sponsor everything from the high school wrestling team to the "pride committee" chili...
Does the Way of Improvement Lead Home?
First, let me extend my greetings to the readers of the Front Porch Republic. I have been following conversations here at FPR since...
G.K. Gets Real
I recently received a handsome, newly published copy of the book America Through European Eyes, published by Penn State University Press and edited by...
The Greatest Forgotten Player
PHOENIX, ARIZONA. Today is opening day, and how sweet it is. But nine days from now comes the most annoying day on the Major...
Iowa… Place of the Drowsy Ones
OWEN TOWNSHIP, WINNEBAGO COUNTY, ILLINOIS: According to one legend, the word Iowa means "Place of the Drowsy Ones" in some extinct Indian tongue. This...
An Elegy for Tobacco
Henry County, Kentucky. What holds a community together? Or rather, what holds my community together, as I'll have to leave you to worry about...
The Places of Teen Pop Culture
It's not only that the richest people are getting richer; it's the richest places, too. And even within regions -- southern California, say -- rich suburbs have become wealthier and other suburbs' fortunes have declined. "Just as the gap between rich and poor widened at the individual level," Dreier and company note, "it widened tremendously between suburban places." You can see this trend reflected, among other places, in that great bellwether of American life: teen cinema.
Oiko-Systems
Alexandria, VA. For many years now, "environmentalists" have sought to thwart the extension of forms of commerce and economic development that prove destructive of...