A Few Minutes with the Mayor – July 2019

I was 16 years old when I went to college. The year was 1946, World War II had ended, the GI Bill had been passed by Congress, and the colleges were flooded with soldiers returning home to resume their lives. It was no place for a just-graduated high school student, because if ever there was a fish out of water, I was it.

Nonetheless, it was a marvelous time. Youth is generally optimistic and the times were optimistic. Automobiles were once again manufactured for public consumption and this foreshadowed the beginning of massive industrial expansion to supply housing, transportation, and consumer products with growth in manufacturing literally exploding over the next decade.

General Eisenhower, hero of the war in Europe, became President and public optimism in our country’s future soared. Despite the cold war with Russia, it was a feel-good time. Citizens felt good about their country and each other. “Jolting” Joe DiMaggio retired and married America’s pin-up girl, Marilyn Monroe. Sunshine was everywhere.

So how did we get to where we are today with citizens less confidant and more nervous than I can ever recall, except perhaps during World War II after Pearl Harbor?

It didn’t happen overnight; it took more than five decades beginning in the sixties, which saw two phenomena I believe significantly changed our political and cultural landscape.

First was the assassination of John Kennedy. I happened to be in the drug store of our Houston office building and saw it live. Words cannot describe my personal reaction then. Nor can I describe how our nation’s atmosphere became filled with cynicism and suspicion. Understandably, who, what, why became the gossip of the day. Did the Russians play a role… did Lyndon Johnson have a hand in it? With no real answers forthcoming, the establishment came under suspicion.

The second major cultural shock to business-as-usual was Woodstock which drew an estimated 400,000 young people to a three day concert. Stories of drug abuse and open sexual activity flooded the media, but missed the point. At the heart of it, Woodstock was a repudiation of the past. This repudiation has grown stronger over the years, especially in our institutions of learning.

Of course there were many other significant events since, one being when God was taken out of our public schools. The fact that this is celebrated by many shows how much our nation has changed.

Over the years our politicians succeeded in breaking us up as citizens. The “melting pot” for immigrants became the “salad bowl” with assimilation deemed less important than remembering birthplace. Additionally, men, women, old, young, black, white, gay, straight, all became groups, and we lost the most important definition of all… we are Americans. Group identity replaced national identity.

So where are we as a nation? With all the disagreement, the shouting, the yelling, and even the hatred we see every day, are we still the “United” States? Despite our differences the answer is yes. I say this because we still have a Constitution, a remarkable document that has held up for 230 years. It is the Constitution that holds our political parties in check. It stopped the Republicans from destroying President Truman. Today it is stopping the Democrats from destroying President Trump. It exists because the relatively small, isolated American colonies were willing to fight the most powerful nation on earth in order to gain their freedom. In signing the Declaration of Independence, they were signing their own death warrant should their battle for freedom be lost.

Our nation celebrates that event every year. It binds us together, differences between us notwithstanding. Jacksonville will be in the forefront of that celebration as the community gathers on the lawn of New City Hall for our annual July 4 picnic. The Boosters Club and the City will man the food lines. It starts at noon and runs until 3:00pm or when the free hot dogs run out. And it certainly is a hot dog day. According to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, “Americans eat some 20 billion hot dogs per year, and 155 million of them are consumed on July 4th alone, that’s enough average-sized franks to stretch from L.A. to D.C. five times, with some left over.” I think John Adams would be pleased.