Adirondack Chronicle 2024: A Singular Summer

Just one Adirondack Chronicle for this singular summer.  2024 has been an immensely challenging, perplexing, melancholy year.  As is my usual habit, I came to the North Country in early July in the hope of having a few weeks of beautiful vistas, the scent of balsam, the twilight cry of the loons across the lake.  But personal and political events have intervened, and so my time with the wild things has been brief.

On the personal level, I spent most of the first two weeks not in the Adirondacks but in Connecticut with my sister Mary Carol who reached her 80th birthday but had been seriously ill in a nursing home, and after a great struggle she passed away peacefully on July 15.  She had a beautiful life in teaching and guidance counseling, and her friends and former students remember her with joy and good humor.

Returning to the Adirondacks, I hoped to spend a few days with my camera and the wild things.  But Adirondack weather can be ferocious, and the rains have been frequent.  The wild things are hiding out in their dens and nests, so not much photography this year.

Meanwhile, I have started drafts of numerous essays on the great issues of this era — the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity, the assassination attempt on former President Trump, the movement among states to halt the implementation of the new Title IX rules, the consequences of the FAFSA mess for low income students, and so much more — but each draft stayed unfinished as new and even more shocking issues arose.

Then, yesterday, the biggest news yet:  President Biden has declined to run for a second term, and, instead, he has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to be the Democratic nominee.  Wow.  This is a political moment with huge ramifications, rocking an already-chaotic presidential race and opening significant opportunity and risk for the future of the nation.  Washington Post political writer Dan Balz said it best:  “The words “unprecedented” and “historic” have been used so often to describe the state of American politics in recent years that they have become a devalued currency — until Sunday that is, when President Biden sent a lightning bolt through the country with his decision to stand down from the 2024 campaign.”  (Dan Balz, Washington Post, July 21, 2024)

Whether Harris becomes the Democratic nominee at the Democratic convention that starts on August 19 remains to be seen, but the early indications are that she will prevail — in just 24 hours she has already garnered significant endorsements and nearly $50 million in funds raised, a one day record.  Also still an open question is who the vice presidential nominee will be.

I need to get back to loon hunting, but it’s hard to step away from the news screens.  In the weeks ahead, we will be addressing all of this at Trinity in classes and special forums and opportunities for everyone in our community to discuss their points of view on this extraordinary political year.  We are planning a major symposium entitled “Democracy on the Ballot” slated for October 25, as part of Reunion weekend, and I hope we will have full participation by students, faculty and staff.

Whatever your point of view, what’s most important right now is to be informed, to read as much as possible about the candidates and their platforms, and to make informed choices.  And PLAN TO VOTE.  Your vote matters, now more than ever.  Get registered, encourage your friends to register, and plan to VOTE.

I’ll be saying farewell to the Adirondacks shortly, with high hopes to return next year in quieter times.  For now, enjoy these several wild things from the forest preserve…

Til next year….