The American Dream

 

Don't you just love that phrase, "The American Dream?"

But what, exactly, does it mean?

Actually, there is no exact meaning.  As it is most often applied, it means making a ton of money and living a life of luxury without having to work too hard.

For some, it means loftier things, as Martin Luther King depicted it: When black children can walk hand in hand with white children, when Christian and Jew, Protestant and and Catholic can sing together, in the words of that old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we're free at last!"

Now, that's a dream I could get into. But it would not be everyone's American dream, more like a nightmare, the idea of little Black boys holding the hands of little White girls.

When I was 13, I held a microphone in my hand at a school dance and there was a line of girls on one wall and boys along the other and I was supposed to tell everyone to find a partner and do-see-do or whatever, but Mr. James McFall, our Student Council faculty supervisor, came flying out of nowhere and he seized the microphone from my hand. He was wide eyed, the picture of alarm and I was stunned.

"Oh," he explained, "I thought you were going to tell the girls to walk straight across the floor and dance with the boy on the opposite side!"

I stared at him, mouth agape, not understanding the problem.

"Then you'd have some White girls dancing with Black boys!"

This was not a problem which ever crossed my mind. This was 1960, in Bethesda, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C. and our school had, maybe 15 Black children, max, out of a total of 1500 kids. There might have been three Black kids in the gym that night.

Mr. McFall, also taught "Star Science," a select ninth grade class for superior (White) students. The new high school, just built for us to attend that Fall, had finally been named. It was not going to be "West Bethesda High School," which was the name most parents  wanted, but it would be "Walt Whitman High School" which left most people nonplussed, as Walt Whitman didn't have much to do with anything in Bethesda. If they had called it "Clara Barton High School" that would have made sense, since Clara Barton's house still stood in a part of Bethesda called Glen Echo, just a few miles away and she was a suitably heroic figure. But nothing got named after women in those days, so Walt Whitman it was.

Mr. McFall told me under his breadth, "I can't believe they named it after that one."

"Why?"

Mr. McFall looked around to be sure no vice principals were within ear shout, "He was queer as a three dollar bill!"

"Who was?"

"Whitman!"

"No kidding?"

"Yup."

At age 13,  I was not entirely sure what queer meant. I had heard the word used in relation to circumstances: "Well, that's a queer thing," or "That's a queer idea." But attached to a person, it meant odd or peculiar or non conforming. I had to ask my father why Walt Whitman was considered queer. He asked me how that question had arisen and I told him and he said, "Apparently Mr. McFall has a problem with homosexuals, who are men who are not attracted to women, but to men."

That had me thinking for the next few weeks. 

Obadiah Youngblood, Lock 8, Cabin John, MD

But I digress. This was supposed to be a blog about how things do not always work out as you might expect and, given odd details as regards rules, they might turn truly bizarre. 

Take, for example, the detail that the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives does not have to be an elected member of Congress. The House can elect anyone it wants to elect. In recent memory, that has always been a member of the House, somebody who was elected to represent a district back in his home state. But, theoretically, and by the rules of the House, they could elect, say, Donald J. Trump to be the next speaker, which is, apparently, what some supporters, like Steve Bannon have suggested. It would give Mr. Trump a platform from which he can once again be visible and outrageous and no Twitter or Facebook could shut him down.

Then, once Mr. Trump could take advantage of another little quirk in governmental requirements: Supreme Court justices do not have to be graduates of law school. In fact, Justice Robert Jackson, one of the most distinguished justices to ever serve, did not graduate from any law school. And he went on to preside over the Nuremberg Trials, not to mention writing wonderful opinions, especially his dissent in the separation of church and state case in which he observed that for a municipality to support a Catholic church school was tantamount to the state supporting, financially, a church which is exactly what the authors of the First Amendment wanted to avoid as they wrote as the very first sentence of the Bill of Rights, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..." the very first words of the Bill of Rights! Right there. And ignored by towns like Hampton, New Hampshire with the full consent of the Supreme Court ever since.

So, once Mr. Trump springs from his position as Speaker of the House to President, he can appointment Mr. Bannon and Steven Miller and Roger Stone and Michael Flynn to the Supreme Court of the United States, because another little appreciated wrinkle in the rules--the Supreme Court is not limited to nine justices who serve for life. In fact, it has at various times in this nations history had 10 or 15 justices. So, if the US Senate gets to be Republican and the House as well they can pass a law to expand the Court to accommodate as many justices as Mr. Trump desires.  And those justices could come from all walks of life: Joe Rogan, the QAnon shaman, Alex Jones. Or, how about Governor Abbot of Texas? Or Rupert Murdoch? 

And these are lifetime appointments. 

Or Donald Trump could appoint himself to be a justice and serve concurrently as President and Chief Justice. 

And then suits against Yale School of Law for violating the rights of white students and applicants by trying to ensure "diversity" could succeed at the Supreme Court. Say good bye to policies which seek to codify making colleges "welcoming places where students are called out, rather than called in." No more safe spaces. Rest in peace that stuff. And schools that advocate for reparations for the wrongs of slavery can kiss good bye to federal dollars. Oh, that woke world will just evaporate! 

And all that stuff about making schools or government "looking like America" where more offices are held by people of color or women or gays or trans people or Native Americans--all gone. Looking like America means looking like most of America, which is still actually, mostly White, old and a little nasty.

Now, THAT would be an American Dream!