I was fifteen before I saw any form of television, twenty by
the time I was properly introduced to the nuclear American family happily in
residence on network television – Mom and Dad, both white and presumably
Protestant, content in their love for one another, his steadiness of heart and
mind matched by her comforting spirit and competent managing of the household
that was clean, well-lit, above all nice; two children, both adorable and
neither of them known to the police; no crippling disease or black people
anywhere in sight; nobody talking about money.
I’d never met such people, didn’t know the neighborhood, but
apparently it is their exemplary innocence and charm that the saviors of the
republic these days have in mind when they trace the cause of many of our
sorrows back to the deterioration of the once-upon-a-time triple-A-rated
American family values…the economy stumbles into recession, the schools decay,
the currency is debased, the middle class implodes, the hope of the future is
foreclosed, and why, pray tell, is that?
Not enough family values left in the minds of the free and the hearts of
the brave. ~ Lewis Lapham
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