What Would You Put in Oregon’s Time Capsule?
Last week’s COIN Chronicle included a post about Who Gets to Define America (based on two articles by Ted Anthony), and a link to the Oregon Capital Chronicle article, “What did Oregon add to time capsules for America’s 250th birthday?” Both of these items were about how the nation’s story gets told, including how and by whom symbols and objects — flags, bibles, music, and so on — are taken as identifiers of our culture.
We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of our system all the time, but often in broad terms and from a distance. But often, our small symbols and objects better “encapsulate” our reality on the ground, for better or worse. They may serve as concrete evidence of what’s going on, and what we believe in. And not always just for the historians of the future, but as a matter of focus in the here and now.
On that note, what would you put in a time capsule to represent both Oregon and our country this year? For example, “I’d put a receipt for a tank of gas and a week’s worth of groceries,” wrote Lynn Smith. What would you add?
Susan Williams
Dunes City Indivisible, Oregon Coast Indivisible Alliance, COIN Leadership and Comms Teams / Florence
Well, duh! A few bottles of Oregon’s outstanding wine!
Bobby Sample
Dunes City Indivisible, Oregon Coast Indivisible Alliance, COIN Comms Team / Florence
I wonder if that wine would age well. Only our descendants will know!
Are recordings used as time capsule objects? While it’s fresh in my mind, I’m thinking of something I found disturbing when I heard about it. On Sunday, my partner attended a service with a local congregation we were considering to join. I wasn’t there this time, so what follows is hearsay. Imagine someone at a liberal church saying — out loud, mind you, to the whole congregation, as part of the Sunday service — that they are glad Lindsey Graham died. And to be met with no special reaction — these words just flowed, accepted, as one of many petitions and words of gratitude in the ceremony. As hearsay, this remains hard to believe — it’s only what I heard, not a recording. This object for the time capsule is unavailable.
But it’s a sign of the times — and hopefully something that goes back to being something unthinkable again within another decade or two. It’s a sign that early in the 21st century, our extreme political dichotomy didn’t just change our grocery bill or how often we go out on the street with a sign. We have to acknowledge that this period of the nation’s history has changed what kind of people we are.
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Photo inset: America250 time capsule (left) with the bell jar that went on top of it in the background, during their construction stage in the shop. The America250 site provides a list of the contents.