20160216 (rugged individualism)

Dutch children scouring food from garbage cans in late WWII

One of the most moving film

Clips emerging from the Second

World War were of children in

Occupied Holland licking 

Garbage can lids for scraps of

Food as they ranged through

The streets during a punitive

Food shortage imposed on

The Low Countries by the

Nazis to move what food was

Available to the starving 

Homeland in the late stages

Of Germany’s collapse—the

Unmistakeable desperation

Driving their eagerness in

Searching—their bodies and

Hands clearly bones—and 

These children were not in

Concentration camps. I

Wondered if I had seen

Something similar on the

Way home as I drove through

A back alley shortcut. A thin

Figure in a long herringbone

Coat, his or her head and neck

Wrapped with a light green

Scarf as if to shield from both

The wind and people’s view,

Walking preceded me into 

Into the court. I slowed down

Not to startle or endanger her

As I attempted passing in the

Narrow street. She crossed to

Garbage cans standing at the 

Side of a house as I approached.

I proceeded slowly thinking 

She was merely heading for 

The back door as I saw her

Lift the lid of the black box

Putting her head inside to 

See more clearly what had been

Discarded. To stop I quickly

Judged was none of my 

Business. I was returning 

Home from having taken

My friend Peggy and me to

See Michael Moore’s latest,

Where to Invade Next, at the

Valley theaters. Was the

Event like one of my dad’s

Depression era tales: “People

Had nothing to eat. You would

See them at your garbage cans

Looking for leftovers or bones

To gnaw and suck.” I had just

Seen this film that reminded 

Me of the America I have

Experienced these years. It

Might have been nothing—

A resident checking for a 

Missing utensil or item—I

Did not go back to ask. In an

Interview in the film Mr. Moore

Asked a group of Icelanders,

“What would you change in

America?" A woman in her 

Early sixties replied: “We

Are not comfortable here if 

Someone is poor, mistreated,

Or for some reason, struggling

To live. We cannot see that and

Go on with our lives. You

Seem to be able to do this—

See evil, say it’s not mine to

Worry about. We are more

Like a family caring for all

Of us. You are all separate.”

c. J.S.Manista, 2016