Child of the 50s

The experiences that inform my sense of right and wrong and my patriotism is based on my traditional American upbringing. Even though my mother worked we were raised in a traditional home life where dad was the head of the household and the primary disciplinarian. We had a happy childhood, Dan and I, and lived a solid middle class life. I played baseball and lifted weights. My interest in boxing actually led me to reading my first two long books: The Brown Bomber” and Rocky Graziano’s, “ Somebody Up There Likes Me.” It was after meeting my best friend and mentor Professor Maury Dunbar that I was inspired to take on reading word for word important books like yhe eleven volumes of The History of Civilization, Will Durant, the Bible, she classics, and my voracious appetite for reading and collecting psychology, history, philosophy and geopolitics. My military WWII vet and Air Force dad meant constant travel to new states and countries to live in throughout my early life. My depression-era dad always worked more than one job to provide for his family. This informed my own work ethic and my belief in the American family. I only hope the younger generation of any color, religion or origin, can understand in time their enormous privilege of living in the United States. It was a near miracle we had the Founding Fathers, the American Revolution, our U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights should remind us that liberty isn’t a given. Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War solidified our nation and rid slavery. Reconstruction, WWI, the Great Depression, WWII was a time of evolving in human rights and the Industrial Revolution. The Civil Rights era, Vietnam and the Women’s Movement further taught us hard lessons. But this country with all its past mistakes still has the greatest government system. The citizen’s power to vote, Constitutional checks and balances, the Supreme Court and minority rights allows all Americans freedom of liberty and justice. Americans were in the past and should always be willing to fight for our freedoms.

My brother and I were typical 1950s kids growing up in post war American Dream suburbia – in Texas for a while, then Okinawa, military-brats, the term for kids of a career military man- the two boys, Danny and Rusty, well behaved or justified spankings followed in those days. We were a lot less supervised, but strictly taught to respect our elders. The 1950s meant a lot of things now forgotten: no air conditioning, polio was still common, early 50s few if any b/w TVs, by mid-50s we had American Bandstand, girls with dresses and petticoats, hamburgers and "co-cola," jitterbug” dances and hayrides, we lived at times surrounded by country woods, catchin' crawdads down in the "crick," in the holler’; church on Sundays, walking two miles to school and another two miles from church to home, listening to the "negro" church choirs along the way. I discovered Mahalia Jackson on radios difficult to tune in, to listen to the “race” music I loved so much. This brought rhythm and blues into my life forever. Elvis in 1955, Chuck Berry crossed the color line for us in music as did Jackie Robinson in baseball. We were walking to school across railroad lines, through pastures with bulls, Herefords and Longhorns, raccoons and opossums, getting bit by farm dogs, and pretty girls in skirts when we got there; sounds of the times, Fats Domino, Sam Cooke, doo wop, tornadoes come Spring and Fall across the Bible Belt of Denison, Texas on the Oklahoma border- tornado ally; and school atom bomb air raid drills. But many great memories. 

These were the prosperous Eisenhower years; then, America repairing itself from within; the great John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King brought the ultimate success of Civil Rights legislation bringing minority legislation with the force of law. My brother and I served our country during Viet Nam. It was mandatory service. All patriotic American boys were called up or volunteered but over 58,250 American men, mostly still youthful, died in that questionable war. It Ic primarily our dons who fight our wars. This is a lesson this country has not fully learned. Unless we are under existential threat of war we should never invade a country. WWII and Korea were the last two wars we had good reason to commit our precious young men.  

By the 1960s, I was fortunate in being able to travel the world and finally study abroad, graduating from art college in Australia. My studies in graduate school taught me to read widely, think deeply, and take notes and research and check sources, before forming an opinion. Consider the other side, always. I’ve seen many third world countries and western civilization and know the value of the United a states and our Constitutional liberties. I was able to become a full-time fine artist, teach college, successful marriages, experience the wonder of the traditional wife, a successful daughter and son - this is the American dream, because I have lived it.

My travels have taught me that this is the greatest, most innovative, industrious and compassionate country in the world. However, we have also proven to be naïve and have a short term memory with regards to our historical aggressors. There are great and disastrous Democrats, and inspiring and woeful Republicans, so our common struggles should be bi-partisan, but, alas, this is not proving to be as promised.

So, the reason for the blog is to network with open-minded people. We need to preserve our liberties, our American identity, and protect this country from extremists of all kind, in our neighborhoods, and in high government places - within our borders, outside our borders; welcome Mexican immigrants, but impede illegal immigrants; Certainly, welcome Christian, Hindu, Judaism, and Islam, as all religions are welcome; but remember it is fundamentalist Islamics (the Taliban, al Qadea, LeT, ISIS, Boco Haram, Hezbollah, Hamas) who send suicide bombs against men, women and children, still, and stone disobedient wives. Speech is increasingly censored online, and in Western Civilization - Canada, England and Scotland. The American 1st Amendment is a citizen’s fundamental right not afforded in authoritarian governments. God Bless America.