6.27.2026 – how stands the union?

how stands the union?
current state of crystal clear
blue water is proof

Way back in 1936, Stephen Vincent Benét wrote a short story titled, The Devil and Daniel Webster that was first published in The Saturday Evening Post on October 24th of that year.

The short story opens with:

Yes, Dan’l Webster’s dead — or, at least, they buried him.

But every time there’s a thunder storm around Marshfield, they say you can hear his rolling voice in the hollows of the sky.

And they say that if you go to his grave and speak loud and clear, “Dan’l Webster — Dan’l Webster!” the ground ‘ll begin to shiver and the trees begin to shake.

And after a while you’ll hear a deep voice saying, “Neighbour, how stands the Union?”

Then you better answer the Union stands as she stood, rock-bottomed and copper sheathed, one and indivisible, or he’s liable to rear right out of the ground.

At least, that’s what I was told when I was a youngster.

Today if Dan’l called out, “Neighbour, how stands the Union?” I am afraid that the answer would not be that the Union stands as she stood, rock-bottomed and copper sheathed, one and indivisible.

If you gave the current answer, Old Dan’l would not rear right out of the ground, but dig deeper in the ground and pull his gravestone in right after him.

Dig down deep and weep I would think.

According to the Guardian, the answer to the question, Neighbour, how stands the Union? is:

The state of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool rehabilitation effort has become the primary crisis affecting the United States. That is, if you ask the current administration. Limiting the right to vote is running a close second in the World Cup of Political Football, but it’s the reflecting pool that is attracting the most fervent attention. As emergencies go, it’s as thrilling as watching a really large body of still water in the middle of a park. The paint is peeling and it’s full of green algae. (Forget crumbling democracy: America’s biggest crisis is a stagnant, murky pool by
Dave Schilling.)

I thought can that be true?

I am not so sure that the state of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool rehabilitation effort has become the primary crisis affecting the United States.

At least I hope not but I deep down I think its just a case of that current man in office doing his rage-bait shtick while his minions make off with the contents of the US Treasury.

But what if I said this?

The state of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool rehabilitation effort has become the perfect metaphor for the political crisis affecting the United States.

The online dictionary defines metaphor as vivid imagery and explains abstract ideas by transferring the qualities of a familiar object to something else, without using comparative words.

And when you read that the New York Times quotes, Katie Martin, a spokeswoman for the Interior Department, as saying about the reflecting pool that, “The current state of the crystal clear blue water is proof.” *

An example of vivid imagery that explains an abstract idea by transferring the qualities of a familiar object to something else, without using comparative words would be that the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool rehabilitation effort explains the political crisis affecting the United States and you can take the current state of the crystal clear blue water as proof.

I think as my 8th grade Algebra teacher, Mr. Papke would say, Q E D.

(How the Reflecting Pool Turned Green: Missing ‘Bubblers’ and a Rush Job by Maxine Joselow and Luke Broadwater NYT 6/27/2026).