While Emerson faulted Thoreau for his lack of committing to a higher calling than gathering huckleberries, the great intellectual giant did commend Henry for his mastery of practical skills, something Emerson genuinely admired about Thoreau. People with real intellect and education rather than those for which such things are only a hollow affectation are quick to credit those that can do things, the practical things that keep a society functioning and growing. After all, the world is a very practical place that has only so much room for dreamers and artists. And even these require food and shelter.

During WWII there were a great number of activities for those of us on the Home Front, by which contributions were made to the war effort giving us the sense of participation, of doing things useful in fighting the war. Some of these activities enabled even children to make their contributions, things like peeling foil from gum and cigarette pack wrappers, rolling it in a ball and turning it in to a scrap metal collection center. I would help grandad flatten tin cans with hammer and anvil for the same purpose. Many children were also turning in metal toys for the war effort, most of which would command a very high price today as “collectibles.”

Few people today would think about wire clothes hangers being hard to come by, but even such a mundane though utilitarian item was scarce at the time, so, grandad made them. Grandad being a jack of all trades, building our house, the church and grocery store in Little Oklahoma (Southeast Bakersfield) there were construction materials around the place before the war, and having a roll of wire on hand he fashioned a jig of a board and nails, then cutting the wire to the proper length he would twist it around the jig and voila; a wire clothes hanger. Grandad was always doing things like this that made him my idol; grandad could do things, really fascinating and useful things, and he took the time to teach me to do things as well.

In so very many ways those of us living the events of WWII were made to feel useful in the war effort; we were making a contribution to defeat the Axis powers. Rationing was hard on many, but more were making jokes about it than complaining. After all, our boys overseas were fighting and dying; what were the hardships on the home front compared to that, especially when those small flags with gold stars in the windows of homes in the neighborhood reflected the reality of the ultimate price being paid by so many?

You could depend on the funny papers, The Saturday Evening Post and Collier’s Magazine having cartoons about rationing; but very little of poking fun in such a way was of “gallows humor.” Most certainly there was no humor to be found in those fighting and dying overseas. Any such attempt at humor would have been met with an army of home front folk bearing tar and feathers.

Bill Mauldin was sensitive enough to know better than make light of the actual grim realities of what was happening on the front lines, though we all blessed him for the humor he was able to convey through “Willie and Joe” in the face of such grim realities. Which makes it all the more to be wondered why anyone would attempt “humor” in any fashion concerning 9/11, as some have done?

Much in the way of the preamble to Gone With The Wind, the way of life in the America of my generation of WWII is quickly passing away, likely never to be seen again, a time when people believed in virtue, believed crime did not pay, that honesty was the best policy. These values were taught in the homes and schools throughout that America. We trusted our leaders to have the best interests of America in view at all times in making decisions, passing legislation and making policies; it was a time when the courts had more concern for victims than for criminals.

Notwithstanding the legitimate faults and weaknesses that are to be found, my generation was a time reflecting the values of our Founding Fathers, whom we still held in the highest esteem, still reflecting the best of Western Civilization in our schools and society. Little did We The People realize that even at the time the America we loved and believed in, sacrificed so much for was already being sold out and betrayed by the universities and their product politicians so given over to greed and corruption, reflecting the amorality of the universities.

But “root hog or die” remains true, even as the Bible has it “if any not work, neither should he eat.” However, America is suffering from the lack of both people with practical skills and opportunities to apply those skills. At that, the slave labor provided by illegal aliens and welfare checks prevent many young people doing the kind of honest work with their hands that would give them a sense of self-worth rather than turning to crime and gangs.

Since the years when I was a vocational skills instructor, the shops in most high schools have been abandoned. And it is utter self-serving nonsense for politicians to mouth platitudes about “training” for industries that have been shipped out of America for the sake of profits. During the years I was teaching young people to work with both hands and minds, to run lathes and mills, do foundry and sheet metal work, auto repair and construction work, all the while learning to take pride in themselves through a sense of accomplishment I did so in the hope these young people would find a demand for such skills when they graduated. This is no longer the case.

So very much of the American character founded in being able to apply the practical skills to everyday living and earning a paycheck has been sacrificed for a Big Brother government as a way of life. It seems incredible that in just my own lifetime I have been witness to an era in which one paycheck was sufficient to take care of a family to this one in which even two paychecks are insufficient.

It took a lot of slave labor to keep Rome humming along. But as was the case in Rome the problem in America is one that reminds me of the frog in water being slowly heated not realizing it is reaching a killing temperature. It has taken a few decades for America to reach this same situation, an America being turned into a nation of slaves lacking the practical skills to do things for themselves, and a leadership that has sold out and betrayed our nation to the point where the opportunity to apply the practical skills for a paycheck, and one that will provide for a family is fast disappearing.

Working in the fields was not beneath the dignity of many Americans when I was a child. I was born on a cotton farm and raised among such people, the kind of people immortalized by Steinbeck and some others who realized the value of human dignity in working and earning a living with one’s own hands. But even then, the idea the laborer is worthy of his hire was abandoned to the greed and corruption of landowners and their toady politicians and now I have to wonder; where are the jobs to be found for the empty promises of politicians concerning job training?

While I thoroughly enjoy going through my book of Norman Rockwell pictures, it is an enjoyment heavily tinged with the nostalgia of melancholy regret for the America I once knew and is now gone. I’ve lived in some of the harshest conditions without any of the amenities we have come to take for granted and have no illusions about the “good ol’ days.” Still, the American character was rooted in the opportunity to apply the practical skills with hope of providing for a family, of offering hope to a future generation. We are now faced with the grim reality that such hope is fast fading for this generation of young people, and as I consider the vacuum of leadership in America and those running for office I have cause to wonder with genuine concern what is to become of such a generation?