America Is Woven Of Many Strands. I

Man's Hope Can Paint A Purple Picture, Can Transform A Soaring Vulture Into A Noble Eagle Or Moaning Dove.

I Am One Of The Most Irresponsible Beings That Ever Lived. Irresponsibility Is Part Of My Invisibility; Any Way You Face It, It Is A Denial. But To Whom Can I Be Responsible, And Why Should I Be, When You Refuse To See Me?

...and Yet I Am What They Think I Am.

Many Of The Rites Of Passage, Those Rituals Of Growing Up Found In Our Society, Are In The Form Of Such Comic, Practical Joking Affairs--which We Ignore In The Belief That They Possess No Deeper Significance. Yet It Is Precisely In Their Being Regarded As Unimportant That They Take On Importance. For In Them We Ritualize And Dramatize Attitudes Which Contradict And Often Embarrass The Sacred Values Which We Proclaim Through Our Solemn Ceremonies And Rituals Of Nationhood.

We Look Too Much To Museums. The Sun Coming Up In The Morning Is Enough.