Which of course added to her skepticism. What she always told me is that we don't know the real story.
When I was very young, I believed hype. The carefully constructed reports, about either young actors or politicians had to be true or it couldn't be said.
If the lives of pleasure and accomplishment were false, I reasoned, then they would be uncovered, revealed and shamed.
No, my mother would insist, it wasn't always what folks said.
Since my parents never lied, I went out into the world believing that the majority of people did not. Of course I realized that some would prevaricate, exaggerate and simply omit vital facts.
My mother's life credo seems to be taken from Arthur Miller's Death of A Salesman. At one point Willy Loman runs into the father of the boy his own sons had bullied and teased. Somehow Loman learned that now, as an adult, the young man had argued a case before the Supreme Court. He asked the father why he bragged through paternal pride. The other replied that if someone actually does something, it doesn't need to be talked about it.
Thus, not only did she not burnish her own saga but my mother downplayed all that she did. Of course that was her nature as well as any insight she gained from reading.
She would be appalled at America today. The only sins she recognized- in addition to capital crimes- were waste and lying.
I don't know how she could handle our culture.
Because there is no one left to admire except Pete Seeger.
Of course my mother never pledged any loyalty to celebrities or athletes. She would not have been upset by the revelations of a Tiger Woods or a Mel Gibson because she had no emotional investment. In fact, in regard to Gibson, she could not have been surprised since she believed that many people are anti-Semitic.
He was drunk, I imagine her saying, and thus the truth came out. Of course his movie about Jesus was a clue. But I digress.
What I don't understand is good people believing in frauds. From Sarah Palin to George Bush ad nauseum, the landscape is littered with folks who have misrepresented every aspect of their lives.
Womanizing golf players aside, it is our leaders- in finance, government and the media- who seem the most lacking in principles and honesty.
I am certain that there are many good people, like my parents. They do their jobs with integrity, raise their families with love and wisdom and support the ideals of our nation and the world.
But in terms of public figures, my heart belongs to the old folksinger.
Through music and his incredible life, he fought racism, war, nuclear proliferation and cleaned up the Hudson River. Just to name a few of his many accomplishments.
Pete Seeger for President.
Indict Bush.
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