(Image: Aaron Burden/Unsplash.com) My June 9, 2026, essay, “Celebrating* 250 Years of American Mythology?,” has drawn over a hundred comments. As often happens in the comments section of any online forum, the majority of these are people arguing with one another about things that have little or nothing to do with the essay. But enough comments did engage the piece—sometimes in apoplectic terms—that the editor, Carl Olson, asked me to write a response to some of the comments. Two caveats: 1.