Swamp.
I grew up knowing the word, "swamp".
The most productive field on our grandparents farm had been a swamp. Swamp it was no longer; not usually, but sometimes yet.
A long ditch ran straight from the neighbor's land, south, to the graveled ridges that held the water back. Before I was born, stubborn negotiations had resulted in an agreement to drain the swamp, across another neighbor's land, to South Creek.
Dimly, in some vague recess of my mind, I recall seeing pictures of the ditch being dug, with horses pulling slips, or slip scoops. I have driven a horse pulling a slip. Something like a shovel being pushed to shave off a layer of soil, the slip had to be manipulated by use of the handles behind it to shave a layer of dirt--not too much or it would either stick or flip forward, dumping everything; and not too little or it would just slide along the top--but just what the horse could pull. Then, when the slip was full, and up out of the area being dug, the handles would be lifted, deliberately, to cause the slip to flip forward and dump its load.
Once or twice, when a boy, I followed the ditch down to where a deeper cut had to be made, not just through the peat soil of the swamp, but through the graveled ridges that served to dam up the swampland, where the digging had been deeper and harder, through rock and hardpan soil, to let the water free to run to the creek.
If I am not mistaken, and I am, it was Donald Trump who coined the phrase, "to drain the swamp", as a metaphor for what needed to be done in Washington, D.C. I have walked the swamp there, too, a time or two--an actual swamp: the water still stands in places, such as at the Jefferson Memorial--so the term is apt. It might be that "draining the swamp", politically speaking, is what got The Donald elected. Our current disgust at the state of politics overwhelmed what ought to have been a more considered analysis, so we sent, not full horses and slips, but the back end of horses to Washington to dig a ditch.
Ken Kesey, who wrote, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", also wrote, "Sometimes a Great Notion". Neither of them has to do with draining a swamp, but sometimes we get a great notion, and electing Donald Trump to drain the swamp seems to be such a notion. It hasn't worked, so far. The swamp is deeper than before. They are building fences, instead: easier work, even if a fence is not the cure for standing water.
If we are lucky, if we can outlast the cuckoo's nest, we may yet figure out what the problem really is--a fundamental change in the economy and our culture--and get to work on some appropriate solutions. It will not be digging ditches or building fences.
I grew up knowing the word, "swamp".
The most productive field on our grandparents farm had been a swamp. Swamp it was no longer; not usually, but sometimes yet.
A long ditch ran straight from the neighbor's land, south, to the graveled ridges that held the water back. Before I was born, stubborn negotiations had resulted in an agreement to drain the swamp, across another neighbor's land, to South Creek.
Once or twice, when a boy, I followed the ditch down to where a deeper cut had to be made, not just through the peat soil of the swamp, but through the graveled ridges that served to dam up the swampland, where the digging had been deeper and harder, through rock and hardpan soil, to let the water free to run to the creek.
If I am not mistaken, and I am, it was Donald Trump who coined the phrase, "to drain the swamp", as a metaphor for what needed to be done in Washington, D.C. I have walked the swamp there, too, a time or two--an actual swamp: the water still stands in places, such as at the Jefferson Memorial--so the term is apt. It might be that "draining the swamp", politically speaking, is what got The Donald elected. Our current disgust at the state of politics overwhelmed what ought to have been a more considered analysis, so we sent, not full horses and slips, but the back end of horses to Washington to dig a ditch.
Ken Kesey, who wrote, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", also wrote, "Sometimes a Great Notion". Neither of them has to do with draining a swamp, but sometimes we get a great notion, and electing Donald Trump to drain the swamp seems to be such a notion. It hasn't worked, so far. The swamp is deeper than before. They are building fences, instead: easier work, even if a fence is not the cure for standing water.
If we are lucky, if we can outlast the cuckoo's nest, we may yet figure out what the problem really is--a fundamental change in the economy and our culture--and get to work on some appropriate solutions. It will not be digging ditches or building fences.
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