The People have spoken

Reading about the U.S. elections from Europe is interesting.  Even here the President’s comments are carried on local television (laSexta if you are wondering). I am still following U.S. news, but less so.   So apparently the Swedish mafia is having rivals killed in Spain, who knew those were things).

Several years ago I was at a conference at Catholic University, and one of the speakers asked the question “Why aren’t there any skyscrapers in DC?”

My answer, if I recall had something to do with DC being a government city as opposed to New York, Boston, Chicago, which were cities of commerce.  Cities of commerce need space for their employees and they need to make statements about who they are and make a statement about their presence.  The U.S. federal government on the other hand, does not need to establish who they are, and federal architecture (Thank you Daniel Burnham) rarely ventures outside of Classical / Neoclassical architecture.  Part of my answer also referenced the tension between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton.  

The tension between these two “Founding Fathers” for the purposes of this discussion is will the United States (I am not using the name America and will explain why later) be a country of big cities and commerce and diverse (my words) or a country of farmers and agriculture with no diversity (my words).   I feel like these two competing visions of the United States are still playing out in how we (you) see yourselves and what you want for your future.      

First things first, as a Black man, all of this is viewed through the lens of slavery, and I must say neither man is without blame.  

So the statement that I am offering is will the United States be a country “ruled” by 1) capitalists from big cities who made money from the work of slaves, or  2) farmers who made money from the work of slaves. 

For me, neither is an appealing choice, and the inevitable answer is Paul Cuffe or Marcus Garvey.