The American Dream Chronicles

Strange Fruit

-Lewis Allen

Southern trees bear strange fruit.
Blood on the leaves,
Blood at the root.
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant south.
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth.
The scent of magnolia sweet and fresh.
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.

Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck,
for the rain to gather,
for the wind to suck,
for the sun to rot,
for the tree to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.

The American Dream used to be a noble dream.  Immigrants came to America for an opportunity.  If they worked hard, they could achieve success and even wealth.

However, nowadays the American Dream has morphed from an opportunity to earn into a desire to get as much money as possible while putting forth the least amount of effort.  This is evident in the lottery and casinos.  People buy lottery tickets or gamble in casinos in an attempt to win big while only risking a few dollars.  There is no effort put forth and no benefit besides money.

This is far from the American Dream of the past.  Even if the pioneers of this country did not become wealthy, they at least had a home, land, property, a family, multiple fruits of their labor to show for all their efforts.  They built this country on their hard work.  The next generation could build on the previous generations accomplishments, thus advancing society with each new generation.

On what can the next generation build when the foundation is as week as chance?  Where is the example of hard work and determination in a man sitting at a slot machine?  What skills are learned and passed to the next generation?

Tonight Show

Old west cowboy songs, because these relate to the young America that once was in the west.

Lonely People - America

Sister Golden Hair - America

House of the Rising Sun - The Animals

We Gotta Get Out of This Place - The Animals

City of New Orleans - Arlo Guthrie

Up on Cripple Creek - The Band

The Weight - The Band

I Get Around - The Beach Boys

Rebel Yell - Billy Idol

You May Be Right - Billy Joel

Easy Money - Billy Joel

The River Of Dreams - Billy Joel

Simple Twist Of Fate - Bob Dylan

Shelter From The Storm - Bob Dylan

Subterranean Homesick Blues - Bob Dylan

Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right - Bob Dylan

It Ain’t Me, Babe - Bob Dylan

Night Moves - Bob Seger

Turn The Page - Bob Seger

Against The Wind - Bob Seger

The Fire Inside - Bob Seger

Like A Rock - Bob Seger

The Letter - The Box Tops

No Surrender - Bruce Springsteen

Born To Run - Bruce Springsteen

Spirit In the Night - Bruce Springsteen

Waitin’ On A Sunny Day - Bruce Springsteen

It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue - Joan Baez

Danny’s Song - Loggins and Messina

The Obvious Child - Paul Simon

Living In The Country - Pete Seeger

This Land Is Your Land - Pete Seeger

Born To Be Wild - Steppenwolf

Movies:

“Easy Rider”

“Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”

“Treasure of the Sierra Madre”

Books:

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S Thompson

Hells Angels - Hunter S Thompson

On The Road - Jack Kerouac

Quotes:

“life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

“Go west, young man, and grow up with the country.” -John Soule/Horace Greeley

Horatio Alger

In Search of the American Dream

Introduction

“Go west, young man, and grow up with the country.”  This may very well be the key to finding the American Dream.  However, the west is all grown up and the country is mostly developed.  Despite this, I must go west.  Maybe there is something to be found on the range where the Indians and cowboys once roamed.  I do not really expect to find anything, it is the journey that draws me.  It is the experience that will teach me and it is the memories that will remain with me to remind me what America is, if nothing else.

On second thought, it has to be out there, if only as a simple desert gas station, built, owned, and operated by the same family since its origin.  That is, in fact, the American Dream in its purest essence.  As defined by the founding fathers, the American Dream is right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  Happiness has come to mean attaining wealth through hard work.  But it is also more than this: it is the promise of a social order in which any citizen is able to attain all they are capable of, limited only by their own talent and desire.

It must be asked whether the American Dream is truly a single ideal to be capitalized or whether it changes from person to person, thus an american dream.  This is a possibility, but I am led to believe that there is one true American Dream that all citizens in this country long to discover, know, and retain.

This trip is to be, in the words of Hunter S. Thompson, a “physical salute to the fantastic possibilities of life in this country.”  If the trip is to provide no direct, physical representation of the American Dream, the trip itself must represent some ideal of life or opportunity in America to be worthwhile.

I consider this the search for the American Dream an essential experience as an American college student.  I need to know what the rest of America looks, smells, and acts like in order to better understand our country.

-Matt Steinberg