THE ICE CREAM TRUCK

     The other day I was driving home, stuck at a long light. Suddenly my eye was caught by a truck, one of those that take away dead cars, good only for scrap. Dragging along behind it was an ice cream truck. I began to wonder, to think, to imagine, the dreams that this truck had fulfilled. How many times did we or our kids and grandkids run swiftly, screaming about the ice cream truck and desperately needing money for it.
     Why was ice cream from the truck so much better than the ice cream in the freezer? Why did it signify so much in the lives of kids and in adults who had that itty bit of a kid left in them?
     My opinion? It was the dream it represented. It was the perfect image of enjoyment, of achieving a goal, of convincing one's parents - or oneself - that this would just hit the spot, be the cherry on top of the day's events. And so it was, and so it will always be, as long as there are ice cream trucks, as long as there are kids of all ages. But today, that poor ice cream truck had finished its role as a dream maker and a dream fulfiller.
     And I wondered, as I drove along, how many other dreams had been killed within us, within our hearts? How many dreams had we given up on and how had we fallen to such a level that we did not understand dreams any longer? Sad state of affairs. 
    I think our dreams are in jeopardy today because we are all angry, so angry. We wonder what could be taking us so long to fulfill the dreams of all, at least the realistic ones and even the ones that take a flying leap of faith? Why has there been a growth of grumpy people who refuse to dream any longer and who refuse to allow others to dream as well? When did we lose the ability, the desire, the understanding, the passion, to crawl into the skin of another and make an effort to understand, to feel the driving passions such as we forgot so long ago? When did we forget that we all need to simulate a walk in the shoes of others if we are to retain our humanity.
     It is when we become so ossified, that we treat others as objects, there to serve our purpose and to hell with them in any other way. It is when men think that women are there to serve them, have no rights. It is then that we turn on others trying to achieve at least a little of what we have, or certainly to facilitate the dream for their children or even just to survive!
     We mutter and say to each other that they should have stayed in their own country. I agree, for what a better world it would be if we were all able to remain in our homelands, build lives there for us and the future, live our dreams. As a character so wisely said in a book I just finished reading, "A homeland was a place of the heart, a place of memory and belonging. To lose it, to leave, to watch it dissolve into agony, to be coerced into exile - it was a severing of self."
     So yes, I wish all the refugees running for their lives, afraid of death by torture, of seeing their children kidnapped or killed in front of their eyes, all those fleeing starvation due to war and destruction or climate change that rich people refuse to accept, thinking their money will protect them and to hell with all others, of fleeing gang warfare and domestic violence, of running for their lives, for their dreams - they too wish they could remain in their homelands,but this is not meant to be.
     And now for the skin and mind and heart and souls and shoes of others. Go read a new book that writes of the ugliness of eugenics , of nasty prejudice, and the efforts made - successfully in much of he legislation - to keep out the untermensch - the Jews and Italians, the rifraff of eastern Europe. I cry when I think of how many people would have escaped the maw of the crematoria, the medical experiments of a mad Mengele and followers. I shudder when I think of those runing from the violence of Mafia ruled Sicily. I cringe when I think of even the Irish, fleeing famine, who were deemed good for naught other than digging huge ditches, of serving needs as servants and we had better not get started on Asians!! 
     These people were all forced to leave their homelands, to leave all behind - goods, family, traditions, roots - and start all over for the sake of dreams. Yes, dreams, and every single one of us got here to this country of dreams because some ancestor of ours had a dream, a need, a desperation, to leave a homeland and build a new life. Even slaves, indentured sevants, brought here against their will, had the possibility of dreaming, of trying to attain those dreams, and even die trying.
     Today's "migrants" are all refugees. The term migrant has become an epithet in the mouths of many, degrading those 'migrants' as less than human, as filthy and crime ridden, and here for nefarious purposes. No, they are not and they are no different than the wealthy of the world who buy up property here so they, too, could have a refuge, a place of dreams, a place of safety when their country, their homeland dissolves.
    So here is an image that might put it into perspective. Think of the illegal immigrants coming off the Mayflower and the ships that followed, invading the lands all up and down the east coast of this 'new' land, actually, not so new and belonging to others. These illegals needed space for freedom of religon, for rights as people, for dreams for their chdren, simply to survive in a world that made it impossible in the homeland. So on they came and the onlaught grew.
     Think of the illegal immigrants who indeed had selfish thoughts and motives when they moved into the land belonging to the country of Mexico, a sovereign state. These 'Texans' wanted land to expand, to set up a new and better life, and so on they came,illegally, unwanted, and never mind the land they stole from under the people already living there.
      Yes, we, the people of this country, were all or are descended from immigrants - migrants! We too had dirty, exhausted people in our own background who came to this country because they were being hounded to death or stifled in their dreams, were refusing to see their children starve, were tired of living under cruel despots, had lives destroyed by war and needed a new homeland. Our country was enriched by all this and we have so forgotten this. Are we all to appy the new ruligs and feelings to US? Think about it.
     We used to be taught that America was a melting pot, where all kept traditions, but also lent them to others, and we became a new breed upon this earth - Americans, unlike anyone else. We breathed free air, were allowed to dream, were allowed to dare to move up in society, were inspired to wish and hope for more for their kids, to see them become educated.
      "America, America, G-d shed His Grace on thee". We sing that song. We sing G-d Bless America, and we dare to think that G-d is on our side and perhaps He is, I hope He is, but G-d has not yet walked away from us, despite all that we have done to His creations. Would that we remember this. Would that we try on the skins and hearts and shoes of others and then bless the G-d that allowed a country such as this to exist, this great experiment which should be the mainstay of the right and proper of the world, but which has lost its way. Let us make sure that the dreams do not die, do not get dragged off to an ignominious death such as was awaiting that poor ice cream truck.