Who are the people in your Neighborhood?

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When the USA entered World War 2 (encouraged by Pearl Harbor), it was the end of US isolationism. (You can read all about the philosophical bases of this particular attitude towards foreign policy: look under the Monroe Doctrine.) But the American involvement in World War 2 had its social implications too; after the War, Europe was no longer a mysterious place where only the elite dared to go.

It seems to me that it was very much as though The United States of America grew up, and went to College. We met different people, and we were no longer dominated by the world view of our Parents. Blacks and Native Americans, Hispanics and other non-white minorities looked more like human beings, just as if we had met and gotten to know them in College. It seemed possible to get some wisdom from those who did not wear the traditional face of wisdom, namely white Europeans.

Interestingly enough, Sesame Street went on the air, and within a decade or so, our kids were listening to a song: Who are the people in your neighborhood? It's the people that you meet, when you walk along the street! The conservatives of today would view that song as subversive in the extreme. It encouraged little kids to regard people who appeared to be aliens as actually their neighbors. A neighbor is someone with whom you share a vested interest: an interest in your neighborhood.

Hillary Clinton boldly declared this vision: there are certain things that must be approached communally. The list was far larger than any fiscal conservative could tolerate: Education, Housing, Health, Aging, Transportation. No, no; just Defense and Highways, people; everything else has to be privatized! Are you crazy?

This is probably still the battlefront between the haves, and the have-nots, including all liberals of any level of income: our neighborhood is much larger. We're not really happy with the gun-owning, bible-thumping, gas-guzzling guys in the big house up the street, but he's in our neighborhood too. He thinks he's a one-man neighborhood all by himself, but if tuition costs go up much higher, he's going to have to beg to get into our neighborhood, and of course we're going to let him in.

The amazing thing is that a good many economic elitists out there heard this very song in their young days. But it is much harder for people who either have large incomes, or dream of them every night, to enter the mindset of our Neighborhood than it is for a Camel to go through the eye of the proverbial Needle.

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