Op-ed piece by columnist David Brooks in NY Times today, about study of differing child-rearing habits of rich & poor. In the Moynihan style, I guess.

American culture needs to counterbalance bourgeois competitive materialism with an awareness of the common good. Not that competitive materialism & striving are necessarily bad. Not at all. I admire strivers (I just hate those big SUVs). But we need that equilibrium. Civic values, the humane values of civic society - charity & good deeds & justice & equal opportunity & human rights. Not patronizing : empowering. "Let justice pour down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."

This is where the arts come in. La Republique. Liberte, Egalite, Sororite, Fraternite.

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I'd sure like to go to the AWP Fest, but I gotta stay here & take care of the poetry store.