Tag Archives: Great Depression

To Make a Better Life

Sometime back before the American Revolution, my ancestors, probably including those of both English and Irish nationalities, immigrated to what would become the United States.

They were part of the great migration of European peoples to the Americas. Native Americans would suffer greatly, pushed further and further into less fertile areas, forced to give up sovereignty and lands.

Slaves and their descendants suffered also, shackled by prejudice that denied them the American dream.

For people like my ancestors, however, the new lands allowed them to flourish as they probably never would have in Europe. Like other immigrant families, some of my ancestors did better than others. A few became well-off, others became small farmers, others eventually landed in urban areas, becoming workers and small business owners, surviving both depression and times of war.

My own parents kept their home during the Great Depression of the thirties, saved by one of President Franklin Roosevelt’s new deal programs. Later, they managed to send my brother and me to college. We both enjoyed middle class American lives.

Not surprisingly, I have sympathy for immigrants. I think one of the greatest gifts the country has been granted is renewal brought about by managed immigration. Indeed, the castoffs of Nazi Germany, given sanctuary in the United States, helped power the defeat of that same regime.

Some of my beliefs, I freely admit, come from my Christian faith, a belief that those who are blessed are obligated to bless others. We the blessed, are called to share those blessings.

This country has allowed some to amass great wealth. I don’t believe that being rich is in itself a sin. I do believe it is a great responsibility. The responsibility is to choose between the path of the rich man in Jesus’ parable who ignored the poor seeking crumbs from his table, or that of the one known as the Good Samaritan, who chose to help the needy one he happened to meet.

Baseball Teams and Nations

A baseball team is more likely to win when its members seek the goals of the group before their own. For a nation to be successful, a significant number of citizens must seek the common good above their individual interests.

When citizens believe their country is in peril, they sometimes sacrifice a great deal for its survival, as Americans did during the Second World War. Things fall apart when a shared dream dies.

When elite groups choose to gather riches and power for themselves through corrupt or merely selfish practices, ordinary citizens begin to question the justness and fairness of the system. Communist movements grew in the United States in the 1930’s during the Great Depression, when unemployment resulted in growing poverty and despair.

Communism ceased to be attractive to most Americans during and after the Second World War. Jobs and prosperity returned. Higher education became possible for more Americans through programs for returning GI’s and others that made such education affordable for ordinary citizens. Most believed in the American dream, that if they worked hard and lived decent lives, they would be rewarded with a good life.

Perhaps hope is the most important ingredient of successful baseball teams and nations, the reason their members sacrifice for them.