The American Dream is a phrase that means different things to different people. To me it means living in the America that I was taught to believe in as a child, you know the one - the land of the free and the home of the brave, the land of liberty and justice for all. I accepted at face value what I was taught about America in school and by my parents, and enthusiastically took those lessons to heart. Perhaps that was my first mistake.
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My father, who was in the Army, was deeply patriotic. He taught me to love this country fiercely and to take great pride in it.
He reinforced every lesson I learned in school about the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. These symbols of America were taught to me as core values, not as historical artifacts, and those lessons forever shaped my vision of America.
Dr. King’s dream is my dream too.
Like all boomers, I was also nurtured on the post-World War II mythology of America as savior of western civilization, which, coupled with the early American history lessons, amounted to something of a double-whammy. How could I not conceive of America as God’s own democracy, sweet land of liberty, and the blessed home of John Wayne, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans?
Growing up as I did, and as did millions of other boomers, I developed an inclination to believe and expect only the very best of our country. There was a very strong message that resonated throughout our culture that we Americans were the good guys, always in the white hats and always saving everybody else’s bacon. We were the good neighbor, the paragon of national virtues.
And the fact of the matter is that ordinary Americans had bucket loads of virtue and so it was easy to assume it was our national character, and to some extent perhaps it was. But that conception fails to account for the dark side of the American character.
In November of 1963, our family was living in Paris, France. I was riding the bus home from school with my older brother who was 15 at the time, when another kid holding a transistor radio to his ear shrieked, "Kennedy’s been shot!" It took a while to register. I was eleven years old and had never known any such thing to occur outside of the movies. It seemed entirely surreal. I was stunned. I did not know what to think or how to feel.
Arriving at our home, we continued to follow the news via radio as we had no television. As word came that JFK was dead, my brother began to blubber like a baby. This scared me more than anything else, for I knew him to be a very tough individual. His reaction was the catalyst that brought home to me the awful gravity of what had just happened.
In the following days and weeks everywhere I went, when the French noticed my American accent, they would cry and express their sorrow and condolences. They loved Kennedy as much as we did. Maybe more. Certainly our tragedy was not lost on them.
And while I didn’t know this at the time, this was one of those tragedies beyond measure. JFK was an extraordinary man in many important ways. Sure, he was imperfect, I’m not trying to paint him as other than a mere mortal, but he was a gifted orator, an inspired thinker, and a highly charismatic leader who wanted to lead us in a very different direction than those who opposed him. Which likely had much to do with why he was shot.
A revolution is coming - a revolution which will be peaceful if we are wise enough; compassionate if we care enough; successful if we are fortunate enough - but a revolution which is coming whether we will it or not. We can affect its character, we cannot alter its inevitability.
~ John F. Kennedy
If he had lived, it might have made all the difference.
We returned to the States in 1964. The evening news was showing footage every night of violence and conflict in the bitter civil rights struggle that was then taking place in America.
As the racial conflict and violence swirled and eddied in the streets of our cities, things were going from bad to worse in a far away place called Vietnam.
As my life unfolded and time went by, the evidence mounted that there was more than just a little bit wrong in the world and in America. As I paid close attention to the news, read everything I could get my hands on and held discussions with every smart person I knew, I came to realize that huge profits were being reaped by certain companies in Vietnam like Dow, Monsanto , Hooker, Diamond-Shamrock, and Hercules (thanks groggy!) who made agent orange, and that the CIA had performed assassinations, heroin trafficking and other crimes to exploit, protect and prolong the war because certain powerful and well-connected businesses and individuals were raking in the big bucks.
Nearly 40 years ago, Halliburton faced almost identical charges over its work for the U.S. government in Vietnam—allegations of overcharging, sweetheart contracts from the White House and war profiteering.
http://www.npr.org/...
The revelations that destroyed my preconceived notions about my own country just kept coming. It was disillusioning and unpleasant but I instinctively knew that I’d rather be revolted by the ugly truth than fooled by a sugarcoated lie. The truth after all is all that matters in the end.
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.
~ John 8:32
It became increasingly clear to me that the history we are commonly taught in school has been massaged, manipulated, edited and altered to make us look good and to reinforce the propaganda our government would have us believe.
Can our government ever really serve us without being honest with us, without telling us the truth? I don’t think so. I believe that the secrecy and deceit that permeate our government serve only to keep us from knowing how and whom they really serve, and to what extent.
The enormous gap between what US leaders do...and what Americans think their leaders are doing is one of the great propaganda accomplishments...
~ Michael Parenti
Our political leaders have at their beck and call the most talented and accomplished liars in the land. They devote their lives to the manipulation of the public consciousness. They are liars without parallel.
Political language. . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
~ George Orwell
The truth is a stranger in our political system. Virtually nothing we are told is the truth. Two of history’s greatest liars explain:
It's not a matter of what is true that counts but a matter of what is perceived to be true.
~ Henry Kissinger
To men like Kissinger, it’s not truth that matters, it’s whatever vile pack of lies they can pass off as truth that counts - like how he and Nixon ‘pacified’ those millions of Laotians and Cambodians with their illegal carpet bombing campaigns.
Vietnam was the first war ever fought without censorship. Without censorship, things can get terribly confused in the public mind.
~ General William Westmoreland
When I was eighteen, I read a book called Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. This book was a further revelation for me that all was not right in America – and probably never had been.
Dee Brown's Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee was first published in the United States in 1970. This landmark book—which incorporated a number of eyewitness accounts and official records—offered a scathing indictment of the U.S. politicians, soldiers, and citizens who colonized the American West. Focusing mainly on the thirty-year span from 1860 to 1890, the book was the first account of the time period told from the Native-American point of view. It demonstrated that whites instigated the great majority of the conflicts between Native Americans and themselves. Brown began searching for the facts about Native Americans after he met several as a child and had a hard time believing the myths about their savagery that were popular among white people. Brown published his book a century after the events took place, but it was a timely publication, since many U.S. citizens were already feeling guilty about their country's involvement in the Vietnam War.
http://www.enotes.com/...
I am often accused of over-emphasizing the negative about America. Did I make any of this stuff happen? No. I have simply observed it or learned it – though I did get involved in the Vietnam War protests, civil disobedience, and the hippie movement. Nevertheless, none of this can be laid at my feet. Are these ‘negative’ matters more important that the birthday parties I went to, the puppies I played with, or all the feel good stories I could tell you? Yes! Hell yes! Most emphatically yes! That’s why I relate these stories, because they are important.
Another pertinent question is why are these things so painful to hear about? It’s because our society is designed to inculcate us with nationalism, and is so effective at it that it causes us genuine pain to question values that have been so deeply instilled. Questioning our most deeply held values and beliefs nevertheless has merit for ‘the unexamined life is not worth living’ ~ Socrates.
"Nationalism is a set of beliefs taught to each generation in which the Motherland or the Fatherland is an object of veneration and becomes a burning cause for which one becomes willing to kill the children of other Motherlands or Fatherlands"
~ Howard Zinn
A sad fact that we all must face is that we are lied to constantly through every possible medium by expert propagandists who aim to shape our views for their own ends.
... the 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: The growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy.
~ Alex Carey, Australian social scientist, quoted by Noam Chomsky in World Orders Old and New
Howard Zinn is my favorite historian for he believes, like I do, that you have to strip away the misinformation and lies to get at the truth, and that the truth is what matters in the end.
"I'm worried that students will take their obedient place in society and look to become successful cogs in the wheel - let the wheel spin them around as it wants without taking a look at what they're doing. I'm concerned that students not become passive acceptors of the official doctrine that's handed down to them from the White House, the media, textbooks, teachers and preachers."
"I suggest that if you know history, then you might not be so easily fooled by the government when it tells you you must go to war for this or that reason -that history is a protective armor against being misled."
~ Howard Zinn
Our government is NOT our friend, and it does NOT tell us the truth.
The biggest lesson I learned from Vietnam is not to trust [our own] government statements.
~ Senator James W. Fulbright
But why dwell on the negative? Why the steady drumbeat of what’s wrong with America? Why not focus on the positive?
Because ignoring uncomfortable or unflattering truths does not make them go away. They remain, festering, waiting to be recognized and delt with. If more people had harped on the wrongs of the Vietnam War maybe we wouldn’t be making the same mistakes in Iraq today. Maybe if more people had bitched and raised hell about the outrageous way we treated the African slaves and the American Indians, maybe JFK, RFK, and MLK would not have been murdered before our very eyes. Is there a connection? It may be tenuous but it’s there.
When you let things slide, you make things worse. The more we choose to look away, the bigger the evil grows. I never thought I would live to see the day when Americans, ANY Americans, would support torture. Well we’re there now, many of us do, at least under some circumstances.
Pew Poll on torture
If I thought for one moment that telling you happy stories would ever change anything, believe me I would. It would be a lot less wear and tear on me.
I want with all my heart and soul to fix what’s wrong with America, and to not sweep it under the rug. We cannot fix what’s wrong if we can’t bring ourselves to face it. We have to look it squarely in the eye, examine it and dissect it – if we are ever going to fix it.
Would I ever accept an imperfect America? Yes, of course, but not this imperfect.
Like Dr. King, I dream of an America that finally does live up to it’s creed, an America that really is the land of the free and the home of the brave, the shining city on the hill where there truly is liberty and justice for all.
I dream of an America where equality, democracy, and social justice are more than just buzz words, but are woven throughout the fabric of society.
I dream of an America where greed, hatred, and bigotry are restrained and discouraged rather than exploited and left to run rampant.
I dream of an America where healthcare, shelter and basic sustenance are guaranteed rights, an America where people take care of each other and help each other.
I dream of an America that forbids the torture and mistreatment of helpless prisoners and that leads the world towards compassion, humanity, and respect for human rights.
I dream of an America that will help the world find a path to peace, brotherhood, and international cooperation.
I dream of a just and good and true America like the one I was taught to believe in as a child.
We will achieve none of these things until we can face up to the brutal truth of where we’ve been and where we presently are.
That’s why I criticize America. If I didn’t love it so...I wouldn’t go to all the trouble.
"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism."
~ Howard Zinn
Post Script
As for what I would suggest anyone do:
- Distrust the government
- Cultivate the habit of digging deeply beneath the surface of things to get at the truth
- Stop drinking the MSM Kool-Aid (we all do it, it’s just too easy)
- Learn to relax your defenses and take a cold hard look at where we are as a nation
- Use your love of our country to force it to change
- Work to restore justice, fairness, equality, and liberty to America
- Continue to participate in and to defend digital democracy and network neutrality
- Honor the truth
HowardZinn.org
Common Cause
Amnesty International
Human Rights Watch
American Civil Liberties Union
School of the Americas Watch
Global Warming FAQ
Friends of the Earth
Worldwatch Institute
Citizens Against Prohibition
NORML