The daily digest of Twin Cities culture | Secrets of the City

Seems I've become a fan of the Westminster Town Hall Forums. You probably already know about the Forums, but if you don't: These are series of speakers, sponsored by our favorite Presbyterian church on the mall, that tackle all manner of contemporary subjects. Last year Westminster embroiled itself in the arts, inviting such heavy-hitters as Edward Albee and (Pfft!) Salman Rushdie.

Now they're tackling the heady subject of America, and what it means to be an American. Interesting topic, no? Still, I was a little under-whelmed by last month's speaker Jacob Needleman, a philosopher who wrote a book called The American Soul. Not knowing anything about the book, I had hoped he would tackle such issues as, you know, are Americans collectively going to hell? Or: just what the heck is the American Dream anyhow? But alas, the fellow had gone reading the Federalist Papers and was more interested in the ideals of early Americans--which, of course, we have strayed far, far from. There was some talk of how we Americans are still connected to such revolutionary thought, but I thought he mostly wimped out in this section, instead hiding in the relative safety of oblique language.

Today's speaker, David Halberstam, a journalist accustomed to shaping language that hovers at about the fourth-grade level (that's how they tell us to write at J-skool, ya'all) (except this guy went to Harvard so maybe not), is slated to cover the future and recent past. This is the guy who wrote The Best and the Brightest, a seminal book that, published in 1972, swayed much public opinion about the American course in Vietnam. Now here's someone with something interesting to say about the meaning of America.

It's really cool to be there at these Forums, which start at noon. But they're also broadcast and re-broadcast on MPR. Hope you catch it one way or another.