Ella Watson: What is sacrifice?
American Gothic, Gordon Parks.
Ella Watson (pictured above) made $1081/year and spent 10% of her money on war bonds even though she was taking care of 5 children. Barbara Orbach and Nicholas Natanson write, ” [African Americans] serve[d] as air raid wardens. Their children contribute[d] scrap and purchase[d] war bonds. Residents of an Arlington, Virginia, trailer camp even cultivate[d] victory gardens. And at almost every turn one glimpse[d] African Americans in military uniforms.” (The Mirror Image:Black Washington in WWII-Era Federal Photography.)
So how did we get from such extreme individual sacrifice (even from those the system treated badly) to where we are today—taking on excessive debt and going about business as usual? WW2 wasn’t that long ago was it?
