Chez's reply

I recently wrote an Open Letter to Chez Pazienza at the Daily Banter. While I regret calling it an open letter considering all the public feuds arising from those documents lately, I felt it was the most appropriate way to do something. To summarize, I was worried about him falling into despair about the contemporary crisis and recalled how awful it was to be a reformer in the 1920s when business conservatives were once again riding roughshod over progress. I know, I know now is not the same as the past but as Mark Twain once put it, history does not repeat but it rhymes. And as everyone knows, the pragmatic, realist reforms of the New Deal built a relatively just society that held for half a century and still reverberates in America. I made the comparison between Chez and Reinhold Niebuhr, not for intellectual caliber but for attitude and outlook. It does not reflect poorly, Niebuhr was a powerhouse who really has no equal today as a thinker. But as a critic of liberalism and exponent of a tough pragmatism I feel Chez and Bob Cesca compare rather well as modern Niebuhrians.

Amazingly, Chez replied in really short order.

I can’t say that I’ve ever been the subject of an open letter, but a reader was kind enough to not only school me on history in the hope of making the point that maybe all is not lost for America, but to then send me a link to his work. I’m the first to admit that it’s really unfortunate that I’ve been feeling this way lately about our politics and our culture, but maybe it’s true that I’m only able to see it all through the prism of my own experience or through the events of my lifetime.
Either way, the lesson is appreciated.

Gosh, I hope my words did not come off too preachy to the point of "schooling" anyone, that was not my intention. What was my intent was to convey a small sense of another's life experiences driving short term despair and ultimate triumph. We are all influenced by the events we experience. I will have to read Chez's memoir Dead Star Twilight if I am to gain understanding of his life. Chez also paid me a great compliment in an email.

You are indeed a historian. Very nice.

And thank you.

To say that made my day is understating it... intensely. As the son of an assembly-line worker who spent most of his life in the blue-collar milieu and only went to college after repeated layoffs, that recognition of really being a historian is about the nicest thing anyone can say to me. A reader left this comment as well "Wow. That was really enlightening. And pretty on point." I am very grateful. And I must admit that I needed some bucking up as well, the essay on reform in the 1920s was as much for me as anyone else. That it gave even small comfort to others is greatly reassuring. My sincerest thanks.