Bulosan's 'Freedom from Want' essay written in 1943 rings just as true today during the age of coronavirus

SATURDAY EVENING POST / NORMAN ROCKWELL

COMMENTARY

Its a good bet that Norman Rockwell's Saturday Evening Post cover for "Freedom From Want" is more famous than Carlos Bulosan's essay that is meant to accompany the picture.

As we near the end of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, the convergence of Memorial Day under the cloud of the coronavirus, it would behoove Americans to read the Filipino American author's thoughts as thousands of people flock to the beaches as if the coronavirus pandemic of the last two months and the 100,000 deaths didn't happen.

In 1941, it was obvious to President Franklin D. Roosevelt that the US had to enter the war against Germany. In his 1941 State of the Union address, he told Americans that US had to extend more aid to Great Britain for the sake of Democracy (Capitol "D").

Democracy -- and by extension, the United States -- was worth saving because of the famous Four Freedoms: Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want and Freedom from Fear.

The freedoms of expression and worship are guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. However, the freedoms from fear and was a bit more controversial. Conservatives called them “New Deal Freedoms,” not “American Freedoms.” a view still held by radical Republicans trying to the social safety net programs borne out of the Roosevelt administration.

Rockwell's rendering of a multi-generational white family sitting around a table of relative abundance, is to miss the irony of the counter-balancing message from Bulosan, who was commissioned by the Saturday Evening Post to write the accompanying essay. He was the only person of color asked to put pen an essay.

By the time Rockwell and Bulosan presented their interpretations of Freedom from Want, America was in the throes of a war whose outcome was still uncertain. Thus the table in Rockwell's portrait is rather sparse compared to today's standards. Missing are the marshmellow-covered yams, the dinner rolls, the buttered vegetables and the whipped cream-topped pies we're used to seeing on a Thanksgiving table. In the middle of a war, it was not a big splashy show of overabundance, but it was just enough to feed that family.

Gone also are the young men of fighting age. The only man who might be of "fighting age" is the man in the lower right corner looking at the viewer (It's said to be a self-portrait of Rockwell) inviting the onlooker to the feast.

CARLOS BULOSAN

Bulosan wrote from the persp

ective of someone who worked in the fields and canneries of the California and Alaska, as he did. He had a deep empathy for the working man -- not the wolves of Wall Street and their lackeys in Washington DC. 

"If you want to know what we are, look upon the farms or upon the hard pavements of the city," he writes. Today, you see the men outside of Home Depot waiting for work, or the men and women bent over in the fields harvesting crops.

"You usually see us working or waiting for work, and you think you know us, but our outward guise is more deceptive than our history," he continues.

When our crops are burned or plowed under, we are angry and confused. Sometimes we ask if this is the real America. Sometimes we watch our long shadows and doubt the future.

As if Bulosan foresaw 2020, where farmers burn their crops, kill their livestock because there are no restaurants ordering their products; but at the same time, millions go hungry and food bank shelves empty out.

"When our crops are burned or plowed under, we are angry and confused. Sometimes we ask if this is the real America. Sometimes we watch our long shadows and doubt the future." 

But Freedom from Want is not only about the food on our table; it also means freedom to think, to debate to be part of democracy that is of, by and for the people.

"But we are not really free unless we use what we produce. So long as the fruit of our labor is denied us, so long will want manifest itself in a world of slaves. It is only when we have plenty to eat — plenty of everything — that we begin to understand what freedom means. To us, freedom is not an intangible thing. When we have enough to eat, then we are healthy enough to enjoy what we eat. Then we have the time and ability to read and think and discuss things. Then we are not merely living but also becoming a creative part of life. It is only then that we become a growing part of democracy.

"We do not take democracy for granted. We feel it grow in our working together — many millions of us working toward a common purpose. If it took us several decades of sacrifices to arrive at this faith, it is because it took us that long to know what part of America is ours.

As he saw the flaws in the America in which he traveled during the decades of the 1920s to 1950s, he didn't let that darken his vision of the promise and dream of America and her ideals. Although his critics called him a socialist for his proletarian views, he knew deep down in his heart, that the USA offered hope and a path towards a dream even though it has not yet realized it.

"The totalitarian nations hate democracy. They hate us because we ask for a definite guaranty of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and freedom from fear and want. Our challenge to tyranny is the depth of our faith in a democracy worth defending. Although they spread lies about us, the way of life we cherish is not dead. The American Dream is only hidden away, and it will push its way up and grow again."

As if he anticipated the arrival of Donald Trump,  when people were marching for women, immigrants, black lives, young people, against climate change, for the truth and against gun violence. Bulosan knew that in order for citizens to enjoy the fruits of democracy, the nation demands an informed and active citizenry. 

"But our march to freedom is not complete unless want is annihilated. The America we hope to see is not merely a physical but also a spiritual and an intellectual world. We are the mirror of what America is.  

"If America wants us to be living and free, then we must be living and free. If we fail, then America fails.

"What do we want? We want complete security and peace. We want to share the promises and fruits of American life. We want to be free from fear and hunger. 

"If you want to know what we are — we are marching!

Today, despite the top 1% who only want to fill their already full pockets, the fears that has unleashed racial bias that has been held in check by the unwritten rules of civility and tolerance, the uneasimess created by a warped kind of leadership and the humility rendered by an equal opportunity pandemic that knows no boundaries, political affiliation, race or class, Freedom from Want  as envisioned by Bulosan, is a worthy and attainable goal that can only be attained if  governments are pushed sufficiently by the will of the people.

Bulosan saw the need for men and women of good will, of all races and economic status, to rise up and speak up in the face of ignorance and injustice, in order for Democracy to survive. It was true back when Bulosan first penned "Freedom from Want." It is just as true today.

Read Carlos Bulosan's entire essay "Freedom From Want."