Margaret Atwood's "A Letter to America" addresses many of the current crises that are troubling our nation, from the war in Iraq, to environmental destruction, to the rollback in civil liberties. I agree with most of Atwood's arguments, especially that a "City on a Hill" cannot bring liberty and enlightenment to the rest of the world if they are destroying those same ideals at home. Atwood seems to see a need for an unsullied America to act as a leader; not necessarily because the rest of the world still looks up to the U.S., but because, as Atwood states, "we know perfectly well that if you go down the plug-hole, we're going with you. We have every reason to wish you well." (p. 511) If the United States is going to involve themselves militarily and economically with the rest of the world, then at least they should be setting a good example.
My one critique of Atwood's essay is that she seems to reduce America's redeemable qualities to those cultivated through entertainment and artistic expression. I agree that our poets, actors, authors, and playwrights have shared many works of genius with the rest of the world. If we truly need to summon our "great spirits of the past," however, I hope that we reach instead for our Jeffersons and Douglass's, our Martin Luther King Jr's and John Muirs, rather than Marlon Brando and Humphrey Bogart.