Intermittent Rant

I was thinking today about how wonderful Norman Rockwell’s paintings were. If you’re not familiar with Normal Rockwell, be sure to check this out. Let’s just say I’m probably the only brown man in the country that admires Norman Rockwell, but that’s beside the point. I was thinking about their irony…yes, irony, for the images that he painted were quite simplistic. Some of them almost mundane. Yet they all seem to convey something extraordinary, something that really strikes a chord (with me, anyway) both as an American and as a human being.

His paintings almost have a certain intrinsic value system. They espouse a way at looking at life…rosy in some ways, starkly real in others…but all of them evoke an ideal. Some could say it is an American ideal. Now I’m not white, so aside from the “White people are so cute!” feelings they muster, I see within them an exuberance for life…something characterized by the American people…an unabashed willingness to reach out into new frontiers, to greet new challenges with a fresh face and an open palm, to cherish our paltry existence on this dear earth of ours with pride and dignity. These are traits I see as uniquely American.

After the election, many of my blue state friends began to wonder about the red states. What happened? Where’s the America I knew? How did America become so fundamentalist? I was wondering that myself. And of course, it’s caused this great rift in the nation…a nation that puts “E pluribus unum” (Out of many, one) on its coins. Yet here we are. It’s we versus them.

But it’s not. I keep hearing that the Democrats have lost touch with the American people, that religious fundamentalism is all the rage now. And perhaps too they will get someone like Pat Robertson or God knows who else on their bandwagon. But I look at the paintings of Norman Rockwell, and I see the real America. There’s a simple truth to them that the Democrats have lost sight of (and the Republicans exploit). They say all politics are local, and they’re right. When your life consists of saying grace at the dinner table, getting ready for the prom, getting the latest gossip from the neighbors, what do you care about healthcare and lockboxes?

I must admit I’m a blue stater in my own way, so I don’t think GW Bush necessarily speaks for these people. But for the love of God, there’s got to be someone out there that does!