My Search for American Culture

Got into discussion last week about American Culture with some folks who claim to be "super" Americans and want their missing culture returned. I'm 6th generation American but was raised on European culture and I was sincere in my quest to discover what they claim had been taken over by immigrants.

My family was loaded with classical musicians who were all readers of classical literature and in our spare time traveled to concerts, race tracks and sunny beaches. When the discussion came up regarding American Culture I was lost!

My discussion partners started tossing out what they thought were examples of American Culture and it began to sound like T.V. Guide. Surely this can't be right?

You see, I had been reading that our American Culture was being swallowed up by immigrants and I just couldn't find exactly what was in jeopardy. One man said sharply "The American Flag and a love of Country" another popped up with "Country Western Music." I mentioned that I had not seen a reduction of any of these things and that annoyed them to a state of agitation.

"Well, you don't love America" was their response and it hurt! "Don't be rude" was my response and it got really mean. I was called a snob, uneducated, and arrogant. Had they mentioned ignorant they would have been a lot closer to the truth.

Some one else mentioned McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken and I merely snarled. Several names were thrown out and I had to admit I didn't know who they were. Okay, my handicap is that I didn't have a television until 1982 but had heard of Elvis! Didn't that count for anything?

"Okay," I pleaded, "let's approach this from another angle and discuss what is missing from America in the last 30 years?" "Morals and Ethics!" came the answer. I still had mine intact and gave my sympathy to those who had traded theirs in.

They were of course talking about our political leaders who had not shown much of either quality in the last 50 years and I came up with "but they are our servants and we set the standards!" (I had to back away as tempers were starting to show.) This discussion group was ready to fight and defend something they couldn't define and it got me to think about why.

European culture probably started by royalty and land owners who developed the art, music, food and dress from their own countries that became so popular that these became associated with that particular area.

So what has America cultivated that has spread from our leaders down through the ranks? So far the list contains Country music, Elvis (rock and roll) McDonalds and fried chicken. I guess Warhol's artistic talent and television is it! Now we're getting somewhere. Then I asked how immigration had hurt these things? Ouch! (Another nasty slam, this time at my sanity.)

I mentioned the importing of slaves from Africa that brought a positive addition to our music with jazz that included Dixieland and Blues. I got a slight nod at that statement. One person excitedly mentioned American Indians! Well, okay, but certainly not their food.

"What's being removed?" I asked over and over. At this point the discussion group became ugly and not only my sanity was challenged by my age and appearance were attacked rudely. "What about your gambling problem?" from the back. "No, I have no problem. My family bred thoroughbred horses and we traveled all over to watch them run!"

"Then I must have a drug problem," because I didn't recognize the name Ted Nugent. Then to make matters worse, I thought Rush Limbaugh was a television host. Now it got truly ugly.

I took some time to meditate on this problem and still can't figure out what exactly the immigrants are destroying in America. In my world, the immigrants have added enormous culture from the music, art and food from every corner of the world. Then it came to me!

The missing link that started evaporating 50 years ago is called "Liberty." It started dissolving so slowly that most of us didn't recognize the loss. We began to elect our representatives and presidents on what they would be promising us in the next 2 to 4 years. We bought into all of it. Most did, but there was a handful of Americans who held out for more freedoms and limited intrusion from Washington DC but our numbers got less every election. We soon found ourselves having to pay large tax bills just so we could get our money's worth back in failed programs. This in itself is a terrible loss. Of course many of our cultural programs were discontinued due to lack of funds for the schools an grants to our orchestras and opera companies.

The greatest loss of all is our faith in our American government. We lost it on September 11, 2001. Our trust that we would always be free and safe because we were Americans was shattered when 4 airplanes crashed carrying our precious Americans as passengers on a preplanned killer rampage taking 5,000 people with them.

We will lose our freedoms and liberties now. That is the American Culture that is in jeopardy!

Copyright © 2001