It takes a village
I have an associate…friend of a friend…who feels the "nuclear family" is a short-term glitch in the history of humanity. He feels kinship has always been tribe-wide and three generations deep. This is a restatement of the famous "It takes a village to raise a child" proverb, a sentiment that gets but limited support from the mainstream. Black folks love the concept, especially since it often boils down to free emergency babysitting.
It is literally true, though. No one has the personal resources to raise a sane human being from childhood without assistance. Never mind sane, just keeping a child alive is beyond the individual ability of most. Burroughsian fantasies aside, neither you nor the child would be very pleased to see the way the wolves you thought would raise you stare at your soft underbelly after a hard day of not catching rabbits. In our civilized times, it's even worse. We are so interdependent we're almost a single entity.
The runs directly against American mythology. America is the land of opportunity, where a man can go as far as his with, skill and maybe a little luck will take him. The land where personal responsibility is the watchword.
Ha.
Your average American doesn't realize he was raised by a village, that his wealth and education was sponsored. And they forget why:
The GI Bill: The Post-War Boom in Housing & College Enrollment
Produced by Scott Williams
Bill Tuttle: The history of the GI Bill in some ways begins with the WWI veterans, who were promised a bonus in 1919 payable in 25 years, 1944, but in 1932 there was a great depression and they were broke. They wanted the bonus immediately. So they marched to Washington. And the bonus marchers were met with military force, led by General Douglas MacAuthur, and major Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Major George S. Patton, the bonus marchers were routed from Washington, it was a terrible, terrible thing. Men who had fought for their country in W.W.I who were being tear gassed and beaten with billyclubs by the military and by the police in Washington in 1932. There was a lot of concern with veterans, because veterans are viewed potentially unstable elements, potentially dangerous people. Because veterans come back to the country. They know how to use arms. They know how to kill people. They are angry. A lot of them feel they have given the best years of their lives to their country, they are not getting much back.
Narrator: To avoid problems again after W.W.II, the American Legion pushed for new veterans benefits, which resulted in Roosevelt signing the GI Bill in 1944.
Bill: A lot of politicians didn't want it. They thought that service people didn't deserve it. And there were a lot of very conservative politicians who thought it would be terrible for the country to send these service people, these veterans, to colleges and universities to be taught by left wing professors.
Bill: It's interesting, it addressed four issues. And one was called readjustment allowances. So when the GIs came back, a lot of them couldn't find work immediately. So one part of the GI Bill was 52 weeks of a readjustment allowance of $20 a week to help them live until they could find work. Another part of the GI bill addressed the concerns and needs of the disabled veterans. Special training programs for them. And then of course there was education and there was housing.
Narrator: College and Universities were flooded with scholars eager to use the GI Bill for their education.
Bill: The educational benefit was up to 48 months, four years of college or vocational education for the veterans. And what it meant was a lot of veterans who would never have thought about going to college did, because they had an opportunity to do it. And the tuition and fees were paid up to $500 a year, well $500 would pay your tuition at Harvard in 1946, so with the GI Bill you could actually afford to go to best college or university in the country.
