When Was the Last Time Americans Had to Truly Sacrifice Collectively?
It has been almost 80 years since American citizens, not just our soldiers, have been asked to sacrifice anything for our country.
Do you remember her? Rosie the Riveter? What grade were we in when we first saw her? I don’t remember. But somewhere in the amorphous, gray haze of my elementary school memory, she stands out with technicolor clarity (along with the Trail of Tears). In this particular unit of history or social studies, we learned about World War II and Pearl Harbor. We learned that the soldiers were shipped off to fight Nazi Germany and the people at home had to join the war effort as well. We joined the effort in several ways, my near-retirement teacher said: women worked, meat and food were rationed, and people even limited how much water they used for baths.
It was those lessons that made some of the Looney Tunes and MGM cartoons a little more clear. We understood why Elmer Fudd dodged the draft man (I think it was Elmer Fudd…It was ages ago. I’m talking elementary people!). We understood that little flea who kept singing, “There’ll be food around the corner, food ‘round the corner, food ‘round the corner for me,” only to find out that there was a meat ration that day. What we did not understand that in the 1980s, some of those cartoons were already over 40 years old, and that would be the last time we saw Americans, even cartoon creators, make a collective sacrifice for something greater than ourselves.
And 40 years after 1980, here we are. We, as American citizens, are being asked to make a collective sacrifice in order to help virus victims and healthcare workers fight an alarming, hazy enemy that we cannot see. We are asked to stay away from gatherings of more than ten people (including church), to wash our hands frequently, to practice physical distancing from one another of at least six feet, and to wear masks and gloves when we go out. And many of us have BALKED at the idea.
Each day, I have turned my television on a news show and seen pastors who have been holding service in spite of local and state orders to cease. When I go to the grocery store, I see plenty of people without masks and pairs of used latex gloves lying in the parking lot. On social media, I have read people say things like not going to church shows a lack of faith. From phone calls with people in my hometown, I have learned that many folk are not taking this virus seriously and are just ignoring CDC recommendations altogether. And when my BGF (best guy friend) calls me each afternoon to rant about his job, he is screaming that some still think this is a Democratic hoax. Because he is the only Black person in his firm, his colleagues make sure that he knows that they are staunch conservative Republicans who follow Trump (Now, my friend doesn’t care about his colleagues’ political persuasions one way or the other, but his colleagues do and they work his nerves. Okay, I laugh at his stories when I shouldn’t)! This Democratic hoax, according to the second hand gossip that I am getting from my BGF, was cooked up to tank Trump’s roaring stock market.
Though my friend thinks people like the folk at his firm are just irrational and stupid, I don’t think so. I don’t think Americans are stupid — period. I don’t think we are irrational. I don’t think we are hard of hearing or slow of understanding at all. I think that as Americans, what we are, is incredibly selfish individuals who have been given the luxury and privilege of basking in the illusions of control, individualism, and separation. Here’s why.
When Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941, America officially entered World War II. In December 1941, Americans were asked to make great personal sacrifices and delay our happiness for just a little while longer, because we were just coming out of the Great Depression. Americans were asked to put aside individual aspirations and support the war effort as a nation. December 1941, almost 80 years ago, was the last time Americans were asked to sacrifice personal comfort, delay material gratification, and think of someone outside of ourselves for the good of the nation. And it was the last time Americans took those kinds of duties -duties to neighborhoods/communities/nation and the “boys across seas” seriously.
We have had and enjoyed almost 100 years of glorious, self-serving, self-centered American individualism and to be asked suddenly to give up almost a century of selfishness for an enemy that most of us cannot see… Well, many of us are whining, crying, belly-aching, taking risks, and issuing out faith challenges. We are having melt-downs and temper tantrums like a tired, overstimulated ten-month-old at 9:30 p.m. in a Wal-Mart Supercenter. And it’s sad.
Now, I am always one to look for the silver lining in everything — even a deadly pandemic. And here’s one. Old folk used to tell me of a time when this country seemed large. No, not large in a geographical sense, but large in heart, respect, and thinking. Oh, this was a mighty big country they tell me. Neighbors, even in the cities, looked out for the children playing stick ball in the streets. Churches held all kinds of programs with potlucks where old ladies cooked and had competitions for the fluffiest pound cakes, the crispiest fried chicken, and the richest pies. A person could leave his home in the South, travel hundreds of miles to cities like Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, and New York and find a boarding house where the rent was low and the cabbage dinners were sometimes free. Mothers who ran out of sugar could borrow a cup from the neighbor, who would send two cups and never speak of it again. Single mothers who had jobs could ask people to “look in” on her children and not pay those people. Children could go outside and play without the fear of pedophiles, because the whole neighborhood was on alert.
Gee, does not that sound wonderful? I find it amazing that as we have gotten more materially rich and more into American individualism, we have gotten “smaller” (this is an old folk word, but you know what they mean). I would say that we are downright atomic (I am talking spiritually and not volatility). Wouldn’t it be nice if COVID-19 makes America large again? Wouldn’t it be nice if we all learned that the only way that any one of us can be great, is if we acknowledge how we wouldn’t be anything at all without others investing in us heavily? And wouldn’t it be nice that if any of us, as Americans, lives to be great that we’d pay it forward by doing simple things like washing our hands, wearing a face mask, and not throwing used gloves on the ground for others to become infected? Wouldn’t it be nice if Covid-19 teaches us that in order to be great again, we must become selfless again?
This comes from my African American Studies binder. If you like it, clap back (press the hands). Or, I’ll see you in class — online.
