Amerikai Magyar Szó, 1982. január-június (36. évfolyam, 1-25. szám)

1982-04-01 / 13. szám

10.

Thursday, April 1. 1982.

AMERICAN DREAMS: Lost and Found, by Studs Terkel. Pantheon Books. 470 pages. $ 14.95.

This book is a timely collection of reflections by people of various socio-economic levels, racial and national groups, living in urban and rural sections of the country. It is a judgement on the American dream exposing it for the mockery it is. Those interviewed are known personalities, others are plain folks. A good number of these people consider the American dream an illusion. Their aspirations for a better life in America have brought them dissatisfaction, anger, apathy and distrust.

People of the working class are well represented in Terkel’s selection. Joe Begley is an owner of a general store in the Appalachia coal mining district of Kentucky. He says, “...I don’t think people know the history of Appalachia. They don’t know much about the history of the country as far as that goes...The school system has failed. It’s been dead for a hundred years...You know that song: ‘This Land Is Your Land’? There’s a legal device that says it’s not your land. As long as it’s like that, it’s gonna be trouble here...A young fella just got back from Vietnam and his land was bein’ destroyed by the strip miners. His lawyer said: ‘You ain’t got a chance. All the court officials is in the coal- business. He got all kinds of citations for killin’ people he didn’t know. People here in Appalachia have been poor for 135 years. We have about 96,000 people in four counties that’s under $ 3,600 a year. I’m talkin’ about dirtpoor people. Many’s on welfare and got black lung and emphysema. Some of ‘em can’t hear. They’re good people and they have worked awful hard all their lives...

I was taught to recognize the American flag,— pledge allegiance, to serve in the navy and to du my part...We want to do things legally and politely, if you can’t get justice, there’s other ways. I don’t want violence. But people here got reason to be violent...”

A candidate who lost in the last election for president of the United Steel Workers of America, Ed Sadlowski is severely critical of labor leadership. He assails their anti-labor sentiments.

“You hear a labor leader sav:‘What’s good for the company, is good for us. because if they make a profit, we get more wages.’ That’s bullshit. U.S. Steel is making more profit. We’re sure as hell not making more wages. There are two hundred thousand less steelworkers today than there were twenty years ago....”

Hartman Turnbow has lived in rural Mississippi all of Ids life. He is seventy-five years old. “American Dream? (He laughs loud and long.) That ol’ slave-time spirit still lives today...Votin’ rights don’t amount to much. Now they got kangaroo courts all over Mississippi. Ain’t no way under God’s sun for a Negro to get involved with a white man and then go to court and win. Since the Ku Klux Klan sprung back to life, they givin’ the young Negroes long sentences when they send ’em to the penitentiary. Since I been a man, I never heard of as many voung Negroes bein’ in penitentiary...It’s gettin’ worser.”

Terkel’s book reveals anti-communism as a social affliction in American life.

Coleman Young is currently in office as Detroit’s

first black Mayor,. He recalls, in 1947, as the first black vice-president of Wayne County CIO Council, he helped organize a group of black and white trade unionists, who armed themselves to protect two black families being terrorized by the K»K.K. “The red scare was on, the witchhunt. The House Un-American Activities Committee came to town. These guys would come to a city to terrorize it...I was called before the committee. The first thing I found out, the Chairman was from Georgia. I said to myself: How can he question my Americanism? I took the trouble to research. Ninety percent of his district was black, so less than ten percent of the people down there elected this s.o.b. And he’s gonna talk about my un-AmericanismI...I told them if they want to talk about un-American activities, I’m prepared to do so. Lynchin’,the poll tax..it was all over the front pages...saying I was a surely witness. I went through five years, during which I was blacklisted...It would be a big mistake for anyone to believe that the great American Dream is apple pie and a happy ending...It’s a continuous struggle all the time...”

There were those who are infected by the American Dream. Mildred Olmsted considers the American dream a good thing. A blue collar worker from the mid-west , she says, “If you don’t have your dream you’d justgjve up. People have always got this great idea that’s going to hit. You know they’re never going to make it but the dream keeps them alive... My husband ’s brother is like that...Tomorrow he’s going to be a millionaire. If he ever lost that,there would be nothing left.J’m afraid... he’s going to become very embittered. He’s very right-wing, very anti-communist, very anti-government,very, very anti-black. He has almost like a small arsenal in his home.(Laughs.) He alwavs wants to show you his guns. He said, ‘It’s ready to go... When they come, I’m gonna be ready.’ His kids turned out to be very unnatural. They’re not spontaneous. They’re almost programmed. They hate blacks.Jt’s church every Sunday...It scares the hell out of me.”

Mrs. George Upham Baylies is president general of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Her passionate love for the American flag expresses patriotic fanaticism. “As the flag goes by in the parade, you just swell up with pride, you are happy to live in a country that is free...I don’t like to have my country criticized...I’m third generation DAR...People have a misconception about the DAR...Anyone is eligible if they can prove their lineage. If one ancestor took part in the American Revolution'War of Independence - they’re eligible...We’re opposed to the ERA. I cannot see what some of these women are driving at...It’s the Soviet threat that concerns us most A young officer from the Pentagon showed us a film about it. We are opposed to the SALT Treaty. We are opposed to the Panama Canal Treaty.”

There are many in the book who are not “dreamers”. Their concern about the quality of life is similar to that expressed by Joe Begley, Hartman Turnbow, Mayor Coleman Young, etc;

Also, evident were those from different social and economic groups who voiced their disillusionment with the system. Their expectations were

based on an American fantasy.

American patriotism is an intrinsic part of the dream. It symbolizes the American way as incomparable to any other country. This has far-reaching implications among those believing in the “good life.”

What is apparent in Terkel’s book is the impact of the two “isms”- anti-communism and racism. These poisonous realities have seriously afflicted the mentality and social conditions in American life. The terms were synonymous in several comments.

Although the percentage of people criticizing the American dream outnumber the neo-eonservatives, it would be a mistake to assume that the book is a-reliable source, in this regard.

In assessing the purpose of American Dreams: Lost and Found, it is apparent that social progress under American capitalism has reached stagnation. Moral unrest has reached epidemic proportions in the countrv.

Corporate wealth controls, monitors and disseminates ideas which shape the thoughts and decisions of people. In all institutions of American life, capitalism breeds duplicity. Hollywood is a major influence in shaping ideas, social relations and emotions for Americans. It is this process that creates what is termed the American Dream

As indicated by most of those interviewed, the American tradition has historically, excluded the majority of Americans from the mainstream of life. The tradition is an integral part of the American dream.

Norma Rogers

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AMERICAN DREAMS

AMERIKAI MAGYAR SZÓ

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