THE
RATIONALIZATIONS
OF DAVID THE DAD
A lot of clichésOld Ben never came to dinner
Chapter 10
eMy father thought you should be willing to do anything at all for your country,
2Because that’s where you came from,
3And where your family came from and your friends too,
4And where all of you were going,
5fWhen the time came.
6And so I thought that too,
7Which is probably where I went so wrong about America,
8Because I was willing to kill all the Japanese in the world for my country,
9aWhich I never thought of as a bunch of greedy white men killing Indians and negroes and gooks and all that,
10Because what I thought of instead was my country,
11And the hills and willows and millponds,
12And the others like me who lived there,
13And the others like me who loved their country,
14Which was maybe desert or mountains or prairies or beaches or small towns or even cities,
15But who were like me anyway,
16Because they were willing to let me live my life in my country,
17And try not to get in my way,
18bIf I tried not to get in theirs,
19Except that I guess a lot of us were getting in some other people’s way,
20Including black folks,
21cWhich I had only thought of as old Ben who delivered the wood and made wreaths at Christmas time,
22And never thought for even a second that it was strange he never once came to dinner,
23Although it seems to me that he never thought it was strange either,
24But just the way things were,
25Which must be wrong,
26Or why did so many people of Ben’s race get so fired up about riding in the front of the bus?
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Chapter 10 / 29