National Marriages

I'm often asked if I'll be working in Czechoslovakia this summer.  Czechoslovakia no longer exists (see map).  While Czechs and Slovakians have related languages, they are different ethnicities with separate national governments.  Following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Czechoslovakia  divided into two countries on January 1, 1993. This was accomplished without bloodshed -- a friendly divorce.

Czechoslovakia had been established, not by accord of its people, but as a  political expedient after the dissolution of Austria-Hungary following World War I. The Slovakian section was always less prosperous, and there was resentment of the Czechs to the North.

The United States is similarly affected by sectionalism. Balancing the competing interests of different world views and regions is never an easy task. Only 150 years ago, we had our own Civil War,  and it was hardly bloodless.

In general, Americans think less about history than Europeans. In the Northern US, where I grew up and spent much of my life, people didn't talk as much about states' rights or the American Civil War as they do here in Tennessee.  At times, I think America  is like a married couple which stayed together in spite of serious problems.  Let's hope we find our way out of  Congressional gridlock.