There is No Main Street, USA

I read a really interesting book about the Puritans by Sarah Vowell entitled "The Wordy Shipmates."

One of the fascinating things about the book is the dismantling of the perception most people have of the people who founded this country.

It turns out the Puritans weren't stuck-up witch-burners--at least, not all of them.

They valued education above everything but their religion, and they actually weren't that opposed to promiscuity. They believed loving anybody more than you love God was wrong, but they weren't all that concerned by what you did with your body.

Another myth Vowell dispels is what I call "The American Myth." It's this idea that at some point in American history politics wasn't corrupt, everybody loved and hugged each other all the time, and life was simple.

False, false, and false.

From the beginning, this country was rife with corruption. If anything, people back then were worse, because it was a lot easier for them to keep minorities like women out of the political game altogether.

There was also just as much petty back-biting as there is now, except instead of pundits going at each other on CNN and Fox News, letters were written and distributed where people like Roger Williams made personal attacks against...well...almost everyone, until he was banished.

If you're a Rhode Islander, reading the book is especially interesting because despite how stringent we are now in our Catholic ways, Roger Williams and the other Puritans used to refer to the Pope as "the Anti-Christ."

It's refreshing to be reminded that despite what any generation says, there never was a Main Street, U.S.A.

One of the most infuriating commercials I hear on the radio is the owner of Uncle Tony's restaurant here in RI, waxing poetically about the good old days when he and his friends would swim in the local pond, eat meatball subs from a cooler, and then stop by the old ice cream shoppe to have a milkshake and talk about that crazy new band, The Beatles.

These commercials are so overly fabricated and manipulative I sometimes wonder if they could be categorized as brain-washing.

It's sort of like retroactive propaganda. Make the past look better than it was to sell people things that people believe will help them relive the good old days that never actually existed. At the same time, make today's generation feel terrible.

When I pointed this out to someone, they said--"Well, nobody's trying to make you kids"--(you kids, haha)--"feel bad. We're just saying things are bad right now and we feel sorry for you."

Oh sure, that won't make me feel bad. That's like saying somebody's house looks like a dump, and then saying--"No, I'm just sorry you have to live in it."

The fact is, every generation had its war. Every generation had obstacles. Every generation had stupidity.

Everyone who grew up watching The Donna Reed Show and believed that was normal was being done a grave disservice. At least now when I turn on the television I can see dysfunction that mirrors my own life.

And if for some reason I want to see a woman bake a cake and giggle, I turn on the Food Network and watch Paula Deen.

I encourage everybody to read "The Wordy Shipmates" because the overall message is something we need to hear:

Things are bad, but things have been worse. All of America was almost wiped out in one winter because of cold and disease.

If we can survive that, we can survive anything.

We just have to stop telling ourselves to look to the past.

Learn from the past, but look to the future.