The Levittowners

The decade was the 1950s. My arthritis was not yet existent. In some ways I hadn't a care in the world. I went for a lot of walks back then, noticed a lot of things. Walked past the Rosenbergs' trial, pondered Barnard Baruch's coinage of the term "Cold War." Listened to rock n' roll, voted for Eisenhower. Watched the first James Bond movie, saw the construction of Levittown. Walked past Martin Luther King Jr.'s bombed house, heralded Rosa Parks in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Read "Invisible Man" and "The Feminine Mystique." Meandered through Disneyland, barked at McCarthy, cheered when Israel claimed independence. Marveled at Sputnik, wondered which segregated school I'd be allowed to attend if I were human (I'm grey in color--neither black nor white).

Most of all, I pondered the paradox of the American myth of happiness and prosperity--the way we never were. We had dropped the bombs (but they would have gotten us first, right?), and entered the Cold War. At the same time our government spewed conservative, homogeneous, libertyless propaganda. The classic American family lived in a Cape Cod or split Ranch, enjoyed barbeques with neighbors, and rocked in T-Birds and poodle skirts.

Fast-forward 50 years.

Personally, I'm old. I'm acerbic. It takes time to get around. But that's not to say I don't notice the fact that the very events of 50 years ago, the very tenor of the nation, the blindness, the fear, the paranoia, the war--it's all recurring in an eerie replay. Yet the seeds of rebellion that sprang up in the 1950s and helped to combat the craziness of the government et al seem powerless today. We are caught up in the President's momentous tide of unthinking war and antagonistic rhetoric. It is anyone's guess where or when we will resurface.

The myth continues. Meanwhile our President daily builds troops by the tens and hundreds of thousands to fight "terrorists" in the abstract. In the abstract, of course, because neither he nor his administration has shared concrete proof with the country or the rest of the world (both crying "Oil! Oil!" in intermittent overridden objection) to legitimize this attack. An attack to fight the same group whose allies slammed hijacked jetliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. An attack despite the sadly weakened objections of the UN. Perhaps in our swagger and conceit we forget what staggering blows we've already been dealt.

Meanwhile America is losing jobs. Meanwhile a noble, brilliant, and diverse group of astronauts were scorched and flung into the air 40 miles above Texas. The mean truth rained down, after which our President quoted the Bible for the nation (since we're all of the same religious background). Meanwhile AIDS is spreading, and the President and his groupies claim condoms don't work. And that international women's health clinics don't need funding, despite increases in death and disease. And that churches do need funding, despite the supposed separation of church and state.

The President's support may be waning. But under what horrifically drastic, dire circumstances will it disintegrate?

I have come to expect the pain from my arthritis. But the pain of everyday reality, the searing depression of the newspaper, is at times overwhelming.

It's all I can do to walk on. Who knows but that, perhaps, on a lower frequency,

Creak speaks for you?