Posted by
Sam Heath on Wednesday, February 13, 2008 3:15:55 PM
I’m gratified to learn the Danish press will not submit to Muslim threats against freedom of the press in that civilized nation. But where is such freedom of the press to be found here in America? Thanks to political correctness, such freedom of the press is only a memory of those my age. And now, even freedom of speech is a thing of the past with pandering politicians and lawyers salivating over any misstep of political correctness. But what is this alien phrase I keep hearing, “The Latino Vote” here in America?
When “The Wizard of Oz” first came out in 1939 I was too young to fully comprehend Dorothy’s comment about not being in Kansas anymore, but the spectacular colors and characters of the magical, enchanting film with the amazing special effects held me spellbound throughout. But shortly after the film’s debut, we were plunged into WWII and that magical film gave way to the realities of death and destruction worldwide, and much of childhood innocence was lost along the way. Those my age back then came to realize we weren’t in Kansas anymore; and now, those my age have cause to wonder whether we are even in America anymore?
Many of you are familiar with the 1951 film “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” For whatever reason it has been shown repeatedly on TV here of late. But for those of us who recall the film when it first came out and compare it with the realities of today, we can only wonder at such a time of seeming naiveté about so many things scientific. But the larger wonder, and one that causes me to wonder whether I’m in America anymore is those parts of the film in which a stranger shows up and is offered a room without question, and a mother entrusts her son to this stranger without question. And people who do not recall that kind of America, the kind of America represented by such trust of a stranger and places like Mayberry, have every reason to wonder if such an America ever existed in fact?
Folks, though I realize I’m still in America geographically such scenes of naive trust from that 1951 SciFi film clearly portray we are not only not in Kansas anymore, Normal Rockwell’s America of the “Greatest Generation” or that of 1951, but have reason to wonder whether we really are in America anymore? And when I hear this strange phrase “the Latino vote,” and how that is so significant here in my native land I have even more reason to doubt I really live in America, a land I recall being populated only by Americans and it was only the American vote that counted. Perhaps it is a trick of my imagination, this America I used to know; maybe like Oz it never really existed?
But no, I tell myself, there really was an America such as I recall in decades past; it isn’t a trick of my imagination or some false memory; such an America really did exist at one time in the past, a past where children believed in the magic of the wonderful land of Oz, we believed in a Norman Rockwell America, and even in 1951 there was a mother that would trust a stranger with her little boy believing he would be safe because we lived in a civilized nation of civilized people. We were a generation raised to the admonitions “Crime Does Not Pay!” and “Honesty is the Best Policy.”
Were we really that seemingly naïve a people even such a relatively short time ago? Yes, we were. And now, I realize such an America seems so very long ago and far away; though it really wasn’t and I have actually witnessed the passing away of such an America within my own lifetime. The question of what kind of America will now be the heritage of this generation leaves me with a melancholy longing for the America I used to know, an America that literally saved the world from the Axis Powers and now seems unable to save itself, especially if America’s salvation depends upon “the Latino vote.” But then, such an alien phrase to this American’s ear is the product of politicians and the media, of a system of evil that has sold out and betrayed the America those my age recall with such melancholy.
My generation can be justly accused of many wrongs, of much naiveté, but it was a generation of hope for a future, one in which a single paycheck took care of a family and good jobs with chance for advancement was the norm. We were doing something right despite our shortcomings, something that cannot be said for the present generation, the present or even prospective leadership of America.