A magazine is a community, and in creating the community of good we thought it best to begin by looking at the one thing that our readers and writers and artists hold in common: the nation we all inhabit.

“I Heart America.” Depending upon your perspective (or perhaps your zip code), that's either an ironic statement, full of doubt and self-loathing, or it's an earnestly patriotic one, imbued with the certainty of American infallibility. Neither perspective satisfies us.

In asking writers and photographers and designers to comment on America for this issue, we didn't know what to expect. But the replies we received, in the form of this special section, confirm our own belief that America is beautiful but always in need of repair. As one of our contributors has so aptly put it: “America: Love it or fix it.” We couldn't agree more.