Make America Great (Again?)

Was there ever a greatest generation?

It's amazing how much one word can affect the meaning of a sentence, by either adding one or taking one away. Take the slogan, “Black Lives Matter.” I have heard people react with “All lives matter!” Are these people necessarily racist because they react? Certainly, it appears that they do not have a very good understanding of the concerns of Black citizens, but I think one added word to the slogan would have lessened that reaction. I would have added the word, “too.” “Black Lives Matter, Too” implies that all lives matter, while still emphasizing the need to place more value on the rights and concerns of African Americans.  However, this article is not about that slogan, but another slogan that is causing much pain, division and misunderstanding.

I believe the slogan, “Make America Great Again” would be greatly improved by taking out one word. Take out the word, “again” and we have “Make America Great!” which is positive and forward looking. Everyone can agree with that and it’s a terrific goal! “Make America Great Again” implies that we used to be much, much better than we are now and we need to go back to some wonderful, nostalgic time, a time which in my opinion never existed. The time they appear to be thinking of, the ‘40s, ‘50s and very early ‘60s were decades when we were actually at a dismal level of decency, when our country was deeply segregated, minorities were harassed with no rights and white lives, at times mainly white male lives, were the only ones being valued. Thus, “Make America great again” is actually an insult to all minorities, as well as many others, such as those who silently suffered from mental health disease, physical handicaps and abuse.

Occasionally, I hear people say that the World War 2 generation was the greatest generation. I can agree that white people and even people of color were more united while fighting that war, and many acts of valor occurred during the war, but what happened when the war was over? Many women who had been filling in, working at important “male” jobs, while their husbands were off to war, had to quit their jobs when the men returned. Thus these women were back to playing a very rigid role in life, which was not as happy for women as portrayed in movies and television.

Furthermore, looking at the war generation, consider the situation with minorities: more than one and a half million African American men and four thousand Black women served in that war. They all laid their lives on the line (many completely giving their lives) only to come home to continued discrimination and humility, with very little recognition for what they had done for our country. Harry Belefonte served in WW2, and publicly spoke of his firm belief in the goal of fighting hate and antisemitism. He said he returned from the war with great hope and expectation that when they all returned in victory, there would be many positive changes, such as more freedom and acceptance for minorities, especially after so many of them had loyally served. However, what he came home to was a return to the former status quo. Instead of honor, they still faced great humility in public life and severe scarcity of opportunities, such as getting a good education, earning appropriate wages, or obtaining decent housing.

What’s worse, during this time period, lynchings of Black men continued with little abatement and little public publicity. From 1940 to 1960, there were 39 lynchings of Black men. I was young during much of that time and national news was not what is today. If the lynchings that happened had been reported nationally, I am sure I would have heard about the shocking news from my parents, who had always advocated for better treatment of Blacks. I was an adult before I first learned that lynchings had happened at all in my life time. I thought lynchings were way in the past, so I was quite shocked to see the photos of people, men and women, sometimes teenagers, gathered to watch the hanging of a Black man. In one photo, the young people were laughing with drinks in their hands las if this was a fun party, right in front of a Black man, hanging from a tree. This in my life time! You can’t tell me this was the greatest generation!

While on the surface it appeared that America in the ‘40s and ‘50s was culturally solid for whites, with few problems such as drugs and violence, actually there were lots of problems, even for middle class and wealthy people. The problems were just hidden behind closed doors. Domestic violence, alcoholism, drugs and mental illness were all present, but kept hush, hush. I am a licensed professional counselor and I have worked with many adult clients, most of them white, who experienced abuse when they were young, from their older relatives. There was sexual, emotional and physical abuse. Their parents had been abused too and just passed it on, but no one talked about it. Mental illness, such as bi-polar disorder existed, but was just seen as people being mean and/or depressed. All of this was swept under the rug, kept secret by people trying to look like normal, good people, but actually living with a lot of inner pain. Women were often abused, but just had to suffer through it. Then they passed their emotional pain on to their children. Eventually, these children grew up and began to rebel.

Thus, in the late ‘60s, we saw the beginnings of the protest generation. Young people and young adults were sick of the hypocrisy. Yes, much of the protest was over the war in Viet Nam, but there was also a lot of reaction to the public denial of problems in homes and in society. I’m not saying all families or even that most experienced this dysfunction and violence, but it was not so very different from what we have today. It was just not openly dealt with. Yes, the severity of the public reaction was not what we always needed, with many of our young getting involved with drugs, but much of that was in reaction to what they were seeing in their own or their friends’ homes. Positively, people marched for good causes, racial integration, freedom for women and anti-war sentiment. A few of the protest songs that I remember from that time are “Cat’s in the Cradle,” “If I Had a Hammer,” “Eve of Destruction” and “The Times They are a Changing.” It seems that society has not stopped reacting, although some of the negative reaction today is reverse reaction to having society’s nostalgic world turned upside down.

Now we have a lot of white people wanting their former lives of special privilege back, or perhaps some people miss that former sense of superiority to another group of people, and still want to elevate their sense of importance by putting other people down. Furthermore, people seem to be reacting to changes in values. Previous standards in dress and public conduct are changing at a fast rate. Many people are not ready to accept the reality that attacking those who are different is not how to handle changes. Vocal and public put downs to people who don’t share one’s values does not produce a great country. We cannot go back to the ‘50s. Insecure people, not ready to accept people who are different from them, are being egged on toward hate by leaders who enjoy the fame and sense of power they get from causing agitation and division.

We need to listen to our better angels! Are you attracted to men who put down other people? Do they claim to be religious in their agitation? Many of these leaders claim to be acting by the Christian faith, but on close examination, their words and rhetoric do not live up to true Biblical Christianity, not according to Jesus or any of the teachings in the New Testament.  Jesus taught love and care for the weak, poor and those discriminated against. Jesus spent time with drunkards, prostitutes and other outcasts. He taught humility and repentance, not praise for the rich, arrogant, judgmental and hypocritical! The apostles in their writings taught strongly on humility, generosity and unity and took their gospel to the poor of society.

Let’s look forward to a positive future, by bringing people together to raise up the poor and care for the young, the homeless and the sick. Let’s learn to respect people who have different values. As long as their values don’t violate your freedom, allow other people to thrive and find themselves. If you don’t agree with someone’s lifestyle, pray for them. Making laws against them is not going to help anyone want to change. Forcing people to change, just because one doesn’t like their choices is not a Christian approach. It’s not living by the Golden Rule, which is to treat people the way you would want to be treated. if Jesus were to walk the streets of America today, He would quite likely be hanging out in bars, on the streets with the homeless, with immigrants and with the LGBTQ crowd. Yes, Jesus was known to hang out in his day with several groups of people that the religious considered very sinful. And yes, Jesus also would meet with the angry MAGA people, and show them love, but they would probably be surprised at his teachings. We can’t legislate values. We mostly change lives by accepting and loving people as they are, with prayer, and also by teaching truth about God in all His love, fullness and glory.