John Steinbeck Shocked America
It’s the birthday of John Steinbeck, whose gut-wrenching mid-20th Century novels shot through the American consciousness like jagged bolts of lightning. Joining with folk singers of the day, e.g., Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie, Steinbeck awakened millions of Americans to a basic human fact that had somehow been forgotten (perhaps via the heady days of the 1920s): we have a basic responsibility to care for one another, and we’re actually at our best when we display that compassion.
I can’t expect he’d be too happy with where we’ve gone today in terms of income inequality, the fight to cut social security and food stamps, etc.
