“I grew up watching western movies & listening to American rock’n’roll. Then I discovered country & blues, Hemingway & Raymond Chandler, & Jim Rockford’s Pontiac Firebird. One of my first books was about American Indians, an enduring interest to this day and I immersed myself in American history. So, when like so many of my people, I headed west, I was ready to embrace America long before I ever stepped off the bus from JFK and on to the streets of New York. But maybe, more than John Wayne movies or “down these mean streets a man must walk…”, more than anything, my talisman was the Band’s second album. There were truths there about an America where you could find your place, a home, love, good times, remember the bad times between long pulls on the jug, an America where the past wasn’t past but the future was full of possibilities. America, the Band said, was big enough to include me and anyone else who cared to listen. That was true for me twenty-eight years ago & it’s still true today”
I grew up watching western movies & listening to American rock’n’roll. Then I discovered country & blues, Hemingway & Raymond Chandler, & Jim Rockford’s Pontiac Firebird. One of my first books was about American Indians, an enduring interest to this day and I immersed myself in American history. So, when like so many of my people, I headed west, I was ready to embrace America long before I ever stepped off the bus from JFK and on to the streets of New York. But maybe, more than John Wayne movies or “down these mean streets a man must walk…”, more than anything, my talisman was the Band’s second album. There were truths there about an America where you could find your place, a home, love, good times, remember the bad times between long pulls on the jug, an America where the past wasn’t past but the future was full of possibilities. America, the Band said, was big enough to include me and anyone else who cared to listen. That was true for me twenty-eight years ago & it’s still true today
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