foreign policy? Does it matter that President Bush is descended from them?_ How do you see the mission of the Puritans played out in contemporary U.S. The idea of being preemptively unapologetic is not only silly and childish and ridiculous, it is not particularly Christ-like. About which I feel like we will never be apologetic enough. The eyes of all people were upon the United States and all they could see were those pictures of American military police officers smiling in front of tortured prisoners of war. When O'Connor quoted Winthrop's line about how 'the eyes of all people are upon us' it seemed like the more foreboding aspect of Winthrop's sermon had become a prophecy fulfilled.

Sandra Day O'Connor read from Winthrop's sermon at Reagan's funeral which was coincidentally right after those horrifying photos came out. I actually started writing my book because I felt apologetic about Abu Ghraib.

When she brought up the city on a hill during her debate with Joe Biden, attributing it to Reagan, she mentioned it in a litany about her ideas about the country, ending with the notion that the United States should be 'unapologetic.' That was the thing that appalled me way more than her robo-Republican's Reagan tribute. Oh, I guess I react to her response to that particular subject the way I react to a lot of things that come out of her mouth-which is to say immediate eye rolling followed by a kind of alienated despair. Hence, prospective elected officials who blather on about how the country needs to be 'unapologetic' in the world. Seems like we've lost that sort of societal hand-wringing. But just as often, maybe more often, they held days of fast-collective penance for their communal sins. When we think of them, we think of Thanksgiving, because of their habit to celebrate days of thanksgiving in honor of various blessings. That fear, that sense of solemn duty, was what kept their delusions of grandeur in check. They saw themselves as their god's pets and as such were terrified they wouldn't live up to their deity's faith in them. I think it's also worth reading about how some of the Puritan writers implored their shipmates to take up the responsibility that comes with blessings. I do think it's worthwhile to question the notion, and thus the origin, of American exceptionalism.

What are we missing in our understanding of ourselves as Americans if we don't know much more about the Puritans than what we've seen on 'Happy Days?'_

Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell