At what point did we abandon our feeling of connectiveness and embrace the all about me syndrome?
I'm a baby boomer. I grew up in less than ideal economic circumstances. Would you believe that there were projects in Burlington, Iowa post WWII? Well there were. I lived in a project called "The Manor". My dad, a great man who was a tanker Sgt. in WWII struggled with what I now recognize as PTSD, taught me many things. Primary among them was that ordinary people all over the world simply want to live their lives and take care of their families. So true.
Back to "The Manor". I lived there until I was 5 years old. It is funny that I have so many recollections. Though we were poor, there was a sense of community. My parents had friends who they regularly got together with socially and I had playmates, as did my two sisters. Though we did not live "high on the hog" during that period, we were, through my five year old eyes, happy and prosperous in all of the things that mattered.
I will contrast then with now...I'm now an official old fart.... Please read on. Reading on is at your peril. Sometimes still waters run deep, or as in my case, still waters are simply a shallow mud puddle. You decide. One of the benefits of reaching my august age is that I really don't care about your decisions. I'm not religious, but if it helps you, may your God bless you.
My dad, who taught me so much had an 8th. grade education. He was a truck driver who worked hard, first in a union and ultimately as an owner operator of his very own truck. My dad was very proud of having his very own truck. I am proud of him.
Please forgive any maudlin references to my family or to my childhood. The purpose of my diary is to simply note that we have lost something in our society and in our country. What we have lost is a sense of community. Teabaggers...I use the term as they originally described themselves with clothespins and teabags upon hats...could not have existed when I was growing up. They would have succumbed to the community feeling that they were nuckin' futs.
After WWII, when our men and women came home from war, there was a tremendous feeling of community. We exchanged labor with each other for only the price of good will. Whether it was someone helping a friend move or two farmers coming together to plow, harrow or harvest crops, we helped one another.
Jumping far, we found ourselves starting in the late 1990's cocooning ourselves into our homes. Suddenly, it evolved that we did not need to sit on the front porch and converse with neighbors on summer evenings. Rather, we could go to chat rooms or primitive blogging/social sites and anonymously allow our ids to spew whatever it was that our dark sides wanted to spew and via the anonymity of the internet have no superego monitorin of our base statements. This trend has continued on steroids.
It is now my opinion that our great country's sense of community has been bested by our collective ids. This has allowed the likes of Paul Ryan, Scott Walker, et. al. to spew their filth.
My final point, though a quantum leap from my topic, is that Bush lied and our soldiers died in two wars that never needed to be fought. I'm a vet who took that asian vacation in 1969 and is always willing to over react and spoil your whole day if you fuck with me. I can only imagine how our current brave warriors who are deployed time after time and given benzos, narcs and SSRI's to mask their horror will eventually settle back into civilian life. I am not religious, but may their respective Gods bless them. They will need and deserve that.