The American Dream? (#3)

Is it really something good and valuable

but obscured by all the turmoil?

More or less than a positive or a negative?

A friend reminded me that it is

Yes and No; Both and Neither.

We can rejoice in Norman Rockwell’s 

images of innocence and hope, but appalled 

by smashed tomatoes and federal marshals

escorting Ruby Bridges to her school.

We were ecstatic that Ed Sullivan brought

the Beatles to American television;

it was by watching American Bandstand

that I learned that The Big Bopper* was a white guy;

laughed at Gilligan’s preposterous island life.

Never was there a navy like McHale’s,

but who could be funnier than Tim Conway?

Never was there an alternate reality 

like that created by Rod Serling

for a twenty-three minute teleplay.

For many in my early boomer generation, 

this became a time of contradictions, 

ironies, and rapidly shifting paradigms; 

uplifting and depressing,

compassion competing with 

a chilling mockery of civility, 

but underneath it all,

hope endured.

* Jiles Perry Richardson, Jr.

(1930-1959)

From: Searching For Donna Reed,

Norman Rockwell, & The American Dream

Unpub. MS # 3 of 5