Richard Nixon said during the Kennedy Nixon campaign that "America cannot stand pat," apparently forgetting that was his wife's name. (New Yorker, November 8, 2004)

In the same issue of the New Yorker there is an interesting article that uses The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit by Sloan Wilson and In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O'Brien to discuss how our attitudes have changed toward trauma and the ability of people to adjust to it. The author argues that we are much more resilient than current conventional wisdom proclaims. "Most people just plain cope well. The vast majority of people get over traumatic events, and get over them remarkably well. Only a small subset -- five to fifteen per cent -- struggle in a way that says they need help."