bill mckibben the flag the cross and the station wagon

I was visiting Concord when I read McKibben’s description of Paul Revere riding for freedom, past a spot well-known in 1775 as the place where an enslaved man and his sister, Mark and Phillis Codman, had been brutally executed. The book’s first section, “The Flag,” reveals the tension between comforting, myth-based patriotism and the real history we don’t want to hear. The flag, the cross, and the station wagon of his title are symbols of the values of patriotism, religion, and community-but also of the forces that pulled White middle-class Americans away from our worthy dreams, even as we pursued them.Īs a teenager, McKibben was a summer tour guide on the Lexington battlefield. Like McKibben, I too wonder what the hell happened-why, when we grew up with such worthy American dreams, are we now plagued with such haunting nightmares? It’s a question that badgers a lot of us of a certain age. She lives in Oakland, CA where she reads science fiction, makes sauerkraut, and relishes growing enormous squashes in her garden.McKibben’s new book, a personal memoir hitched to national history, is The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at His Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What the Hell Happened. Akaya is deeply committed to working for a fair and equitable global society while infusing a sense of purpose, delight, and wonder into everything we do.

She is an Ella Award recipient from the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and served on the Alameda County Human Rights Commission. She was President of Rockwood Leadership Institute for many years, and directs the Thriving Roots Fund, which supports young womxn’s finance and philanthropic learning and leadership based in generosity and interconnectedness.Īkaya received the 2020 Vision Award from Middlebury College and was one of Conscious Company’s 30 World Changing Women of 2018. She is on faculty for the Just Economy Institute, and is founder of the New Universal, which centers human wisdom in the wisdom of brown womxn. She advises, trains, and consults on how change happens individually, organizationally, and societally. Akaya Windwood facilitates transformation.

Bill mckibben the flag the cross and the station wagon