Some American Songs

Coming up on 4th of July! I have been listening to some 'old' songs (we all know them, and were young when they were released) which really speak to me about America, and have all my life. This first one, The River, by Bruce Springsteen... well, it basically speaks about the life I was lucky enough to escape. And, boy, did I learn what he was singing about when I made my first trip across the USA from Santa Clara, CA to Philadelphia, PA in the 1980s. I was listening to this song, and others from Bruce's album, The River, as I did that long drive. And as I got closer and closer to the East Coast, to Ohio, Pennsylvania, Philly, New Jersey, and as I lived in Philly for years, everything Bruce wrote about became clear and understandable to me - a West Coast descendant of working class truckers and electricians, who has had a different life because of the early and continued support of her mother and father, and the brilliance and luck of her father.

The River:

Link to video on Youtube.

Placone's Right

Ron Placone recently wrote a piece on his substack entitled 'The Disdain Towards Culture Should Bother You'. I think he's making the right point here, and his article is worth a read.

Placone acknowledges that the US has always had a disdain for art, creativity and culture but that disdain has grown recently. He says,

The US is arguably the only industrialized nation that sees art as a luxury instead of part of what it means to be human. We spend about 1/10th the amount that other industrialized countries do on arts funding and even that figure is misleading because most of that 1/10th goes to the military.

We value creativity about as much as a gas station does. People of the United States have made incredible cultural contributions to the world and have done so in spite of its societal outlook, not because of it.

A Picture I took last June. Red Roses! Just 'Cause!