Morbid Romantic

Book Review & Personal Blog

I read a book a few years ago for a class I took called ‘America in the 1960s,’ which was really a class on America post WWII through to the Nixon administration and his impeachment. It is hard to classify eras by dates because they are more easily described by the events that shaped them and make them distinct parts of the totality of history. To understand the 60s, one has to understand why the 60s came about and how the heat of protest and advocacy not just died but shaped the future. I love the 1960s because I am proud of it; I look about myself and realize how my world has been influenced by it. The 60s gave us civil Rights, Voting Rights, abortion, Title IX, the Vietnam Syndrome, the environmentalist movement, the gay rights movement, the idea that we CAN change the government if only we have the strength to stand up to it (Locke said it, but it seems we’re still too timid to try it).

Maybe we’re more comfortable as a Hardinist people rather than Lockeian.

I digress.

The book that my female, feminist and absolutely hilarious professor assigned us was called The Other America by Michael Harrington.

It’s a book about the side of America that people often fail to see– the poor, the old, the discontent, the people who have lived for so long and through so many generations in a culture of poverty that the ability to change is almost impossible. The Other America was written decades ago, but is still very relevant today. Just as President John F. Kennedy read the book and formed some of his New Frontier policies on was within the pages, so too can President Obama. Ultimately, JFK failed to bring about the change he tried to enact, specifically to strengthen the economy of the Appalachian area, but this does not have to predict Obama’s success.

I think it’s important that government officials remember that there are real human faces, personalities and suffering behind everything that happens. The formality of government policy makes it seem detached from true hardship and disenfranchisement. Poverty is a disease and not isolated within itself. With poverty comes depression, crime, and the break up of families. Anyone who says, “if a person works hard enough, they can succeed” is either very naive or very cruel. This just simply isn’t so. I don’t want President Obama to succumb to the idea that a few scattered resources and solutions will solve the problem for everyone, that all he needs to do is sprinkle out some tax breaks and stimulus programs and expect everything in America to be fixed.

Change has to be rooted in the system. It will be long, it will be hard. In the end, though, we will all be better off for it.

For Mrs. Obama, I would suggest that she read My Day: The Best of Eleanor Roosevelt’s Acclaimed Newspaper Columns, 1936-1962.

Eleanor Roosevelt is a powerful example of a what a woman can be and what she can achieve. I feel that she is easily one of the greatest and most influential women of the 20th century. I want Mrs. Obama to realize just how much good she can do as the wife of the President. One does not have to sit back and take on beautification projects or wear a pretty smile from the background. A position of power must and should be used to the greatest benefit of the people. Reflecting on the personal words and observations of Eleanor Roosevelt may help her with this.

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