34 America in close up

2. Continued

were worried because the kids might get in¬volved and that it would touch their lives. My father was frightened during the trade union wars in the cleaning industry, which was domi¬nated by hoodlums. For weeks, his business was closed down because they struck the plant and he had no place to send the clothes. Then he was a scab and took the clothes to another clean¬ing establishment. There were killings on the streets. We were used to seeing that. Among Italians, there were padrones who went to mediate the fights within the neighborhoods.

My father never participated in any of this. He was aloof, a loner. He was really an educated man by the standards of the time. He did a lot of reading. He loved opera. He would buy all the librettos. We still have our old Caruso records. The other thing he loved was astronomy. He knew how far the moon was from the earth, how far Venus was. He thought the trip to the moon was a waste of time, a waste of money, because, he said, there is nothing they discovered that he hadn't already known.

He had this one dream that he wanted to see Grand Canyon. He never saw it. He was so tired by the time he had time that he was afraid to take the trip. I never really got to talk to him. He was very shy and lonely.

Black people came to our store, left clothes. They were people who painted and did car¬pentry. They were craftsmen. Our parents had no animosity toward blacks. They — the immi¬grants — saw themselves as being in the same predicament, trying to make it in the city. I never remember any racial conflict when I was little. Later I saw it.

Today the community is very small, five or six square blocks. There's public housing, largely black. The medical center students and young people from advertising and TV see it as part of chic downtown. Some old Italian families are hanging on. It began to change as my gener¬ation was growing up. People my age wanted

to be more like the people from other com¬munities ... Friends of mine would prefer to meet their friends elsewhere than invite them into the neighborhood. That didn't happen in my case because I was growing up in a whole different atmosphere of pride.

I don't have regrets. I believe strongly — and I see signs of it today — that what we were trying to do and didn't succeed in doing had left its mark on the people there. They don't take things sitting down any more. They remember the struggle to save the neighborhood with a certain amount of sadness and a certain amount of respect.

I don't dream any more like I used to. I be¬lieved that in this country, we would have all we needed for the decent life. I don't see that any more. The self-interest of the individual — "I'm number one" — is contaminating much of our thinking today. It's happening with our institutions as well. They seem to be acting in their own self-interest.

The world doesn't seem definable any more. Even this city. I see it becoming more and more disoriented. I'm against bigness for its own sake. We walk down the street and don't even look at one another. We're strangers. It's a time that's hard to figure out.

It's a world I don't know. The world of the computer and the microwave oven. I'll never have one. [Laughs.] There are things alien to my understanding. Younger people growing up will find it easier to contend with, but I doubt it. They'll conform because it's the only way to go. Big Brother is there. I think they will become digits. I don't see myself as a digit, but I know I'm becoming one. It's necessary for me to have my Social Security number available or my driver's license, because I don't have credit cards. It's un-American. Anywhere I gotta pay cash. You see, I'm not a digit yet. [Laughs.]

I don't even know what the American Dream is any more. Maybe it's picking up some pieces I've left behind.

padrone: a man who exploitatively employs or finds work for Italian immigrants.

AMERICAN BELIEFS AND VALUES 35

A Discussion of American Beliefs and Values

In the following interview four young Americans are asked what they think about their own country, how they feel about being Americans, and what their values are. As seniors at Casa Grande High School in Petaluma, California, they all take English literature as one of their college prep classes. The participants are Shannon Alexander (18), Mark and Andrew Ferguson (17), and Mike McKay (18).

Section 1

Interviewer: The traditional American value system has included preaching hard work and worshipping the dollar. It has been part of the American Dream that if you only work hard enough, you can make it. Do you think these values are still important? Andrew. Andrew: I think they really are. I think they are really valid in America of nowadays because it's really coming back in on the media, TV, news¬papers about people who are successes from hard work. And really that's all we are treated with all our life. And I think anyone, anyone at all, could make it really big, if they just tried really hard, no matter what. I don't think it really

matters about their background. And I think that being a success is really what's important in America — that society really frowns upon people who don't make it. So, if you're not a success, if you're just a medium success, you feel — like you're failing. That's my feeling. Interviewer: Mark, you agree with your brother?

Mark: No, not really. I feel that hard work still has its value in America but success, I think, has a different definition and money isn't really as valuable. I think that success has become more a measure of a person to himself rather than a person to society and that people don't

36 AMERICA IN CLOSE-UP