There’s no
mistaking the fact that the American West faces a conundrum of quandaries,
complications, obstacles, problems, predicaments, pickles, trials, troubles,
hurdles, hitches, challenges, difficulties, and other such stuff.
Times might
be tougher than ever before in history.
On the other
hand, it could be that we hear more bad news more often because of the
omnipresent communications technology we’re saddled with these days.
Whatever the
case, the West—and the world—would be a better place if we would stop shouting
at one another and sit down and simply talk.
That, more
or less, is the premise of an opinion piece I wrote for the current issue of American Cowboy magazine. Lines from the
poem “The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats inspired the essay. “The
centre cannot hold,” he wrote. And I argue it is because of these later lines
from the poem: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of
passionate intensity.”
The August-September
American Cowboy is on newsstands now
and, of course, available by subscription. ( www.americancowboy.com ) If my opinion doesn’t suit you, you’ll
likely find plenty else in the magazine’s pages that will.
