What is an American?

Quoted is a portion of an e-mail recently received from Project Laundry List:

This AP story appeared Monday:

One highly effective way to reduce electricity use is to hang laundry on an outdoor clothesline, instead of using a dryer, Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden said Monday.
But many upscale housing developments ban outdoor clotheslines on aesthetic grounds, he added.

There, in a nutshell, is why state attorneys general will be key players in the battle against global warming, Wasden said at the opening of the National Association of Attorneys General conference on energy.

"We are blind to some of the simplest solutions," Wasden said. "Clotheslines are not pretty enough for our notion of the American dream."

This immediately made me think of an Amtrak trip we took on the way back from Florida a few years back and the pathetic state that America is in.

On the trip back we passed through some very sad towns. Vacant buildings, grafitti, people hanging out aimlessly no where to do anything productive if they wanted to. As much a part of America as people who live in high rises in big flourishing cities. But for some reason the hidden part of America. Who are we trying to impress by only showing the world the rich or well to do or the people who pretend to be?

Who's notion of the American Dream are they speaking of? The American dream to some is simply to move here, become citizens, work hard and have a better life. To some, who pile 10 deep in a rowboat, the American dream is to just to make it to the land. To some, who have been so conditioned that living simply is not an American dream option, the more "bling" the better no matter how it is attained. Or is the basic American dream simply being able to live the way one chooses thoroughly and completely?

Why is it that some people can decide for others what their American dream can be? That doesn't sound very American to me. I'm having real difficulty understanding the concept.

As cyber-hippie said " I think the world would be a better place if more people had a "Love Problem!" " Wouldn't that be something! What would we do without all that hate? Kind of feels like a world without hate when hanging (or taking down) clothes from a clothesline doesn't it? Calm, peaceful, serene.

But on the other hand, how would the gun manufacturers survive? After all, it's our Constitutional right to own a gun.....but not have a clothesline...Again, I'm having real difficulty understanding the concept.