Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Community Land Trust Movement, once stated “we have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love, and that love comes from community.” Within the borders of America, community and culture are major aspects of the lives we lead. Culture shapes people’s way of life and actions. Two of four pieces, respectively by Barbara Hamby and Tony Hoagland, distinctly resemble the American society from which they are developed; development in the same sense that public movements within Baltimore structure citizens. Writer Barbara Hamby constructed a piece, “Ode to American English,” with the intent to capsulate American culture in literature. This particular piece is one of very song-like properties. Through Hamby’s use of excess commas and minimal periods, the ode reads very quickly—resembling the fast-paced American lifestyle. The many literary devices, such as alliteration and allusion, are used to capture the essence of the American way of life. References are made to everything from James Dean to donuts, Valley Girl banter to Spanglish. The work accurate portrays the richly involved culture of America and the unique language that accompanies it.
Along the same lines as the former piece, Tony Hoagland addresses the intricacy of culture in “America.” In his prose, Hoagland makes many references to the American lifestyle: a lifestyle that includes “RadioShacks and Burger Kings, and MTV episodes” (line 3). Being American isn’t just a citizenship, but rather a way to live by. Society is influenced by community and culture, which in turn affects each and every one of us.
On Thursday evening, I attended a speaker regarding poverty and housing in Baltimore. James J. Kelly led those in attendance through a series of slides about two separate movements that he is part of. The Community Land Trust Movement and the Catholic Workers Movement are two of many public aid programs instated to help others. One of Kelly’s major points during the lecture was the separation between law and economics, market and state. The split between market and state creates an area in which we are allowed to seek individual interests. These areas then lead to marginalized people originating out of marginalized communities. Budding out of this philosophy, Peter Maurin co-founded the Catholic Workers Movement with the initiative “to foster society based on creed not greed, on gentle personalism instead of rugged individualism.” With the creation of the Catholic Workers Movement, Maurin’s main goals were to create houses of hospitality, communal farms, meetings for clarification of thought, and an accessible newspaper. These incentives were meant to be for a common good instead of public interest. Market and state would evolve into local communities rooted in craft and human need.
In order to fight homelessness and poverty, Chuck Matthei co-founded the Community Land Trust Movement. Kelly, being a member of this movement, explained that community land trusts are democratically controlled, nonprofit holds of land. The land is perpetually held by this group and affordable housing is built on it. The entire purpose behind this being community.
Community is part of the backbone of society. It brings people together and creates a culture all its own. Within the structure of America, there is a culture so distinct that writers have felt moved to immortalize it within their literary works. America has uniqueness all its own with customs to follow. The customs that one knows follow him all his days and become a major part of who he is.