Many people are writing about Anna Nicole Smith now. Of course we have always been writing about her and many of the celebrity fans watching Anna Nicole Smith. They say she achieve fame with few real accomplishments. But nevertheless she has the X factor. Plus she’s the archetypal American star.

Many of us watched this new Marilyn Monroe like we watched the old Marilyn Monroe. Many of us delighted in her antics. The celebrity journalists in print and TV focussed many of us on Anna Nicole Smith. Of course, they could have told us about other Americans, but they wanted us to know about little Anna Nicole Smith. Many of us watched her and those connected to her self-destructing in front of us, and many self-destructing along with us, or just destructing, and we watched and watched and watched. Fascinated.

We certainly have nothing against Anna Nicole Smith. She, for many, represents the “American dream.”

Many young girls from small towns have such dreams. Many young girls from big towns have such dreams. Many young girls from all over the world, especially young girls in poverty, have such dreams. Even young girls in plenty have such dreams. These are the American dreams.

I am of the generation of the great leaders. I shall call them that. The generation when we had other types of American dreams, along with these types. The Malcolm X generation. The Bob Dylan generation. The Cesar Chavez generation. The generation that thought they could “change the world.” Some of our children are adopting African children, some of our children are investing in China and Africa, some of are children are saving the neo-slaves–again in Africa–the fishing children that the New York Times and Oprah have told many of us about. These new African slave children, being sold by their own parents to slave masters who are also parents. This is the new world.

Oprah says she has been to Africa many times. Good for Oprah. She gives standing ovations to white people going to Africa saving little African children and returning them to their slave-seller parents. Good for these white people.

However, I am not going to scapegoat these neo-slave seller parents. Yet.

But what do their children think about them and think about their society. They call this white woman “Mama.” What do they call their own mamas? Do they call Oprah Mama?

What names do they call their African Papas.

I’m not going to scapegoat these Africans, these white mamas, or these Oprahs.

Let me continue my discussion of little Anna Nicole Smith.

I watched Marilyn Monroe self-destruct in front of me. I was a child. I watched how this nation delt with this “child.” I watched how all these men dealt with Marilyn Monroe, including our famous president, and his famous brother, and a famous playwright and the famous American movie industry. I learned of the great Dorothy Dandridge. I watched all the colored stereotypes and archetypes, some making it famous, other self-destructing colored people. I watched Elvis self-destruct in front of me. Africans say he stole their music, but nevertheless Africans praised Elvis along with everybody else. An icon of the rock and roll generation. I was older when Elvis become Elvis, but still a child.

Certainly these are celebrities, and for me they don’t compete with the great leaders. But we are a pop culture and these are our stars.

More people know the names of these stars than they know the names of Goethe or Einstein or….well, we have to make sure that these people become stars also to get to be known. We make them celebrities also.

There are many Goethes that we’ve never heard of because they are not stars.

There have been many Einsteins that we’ve never heard of because they are not stars.

Many of us watched as Malcolm X try to get people to stop his murder. Why destroy the great Malcolm X? Certainly this is a different quality of leadership. This is an archetypal leader.

And we had our songs about Martin King and John Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy. Martin, Bobby, and John and we sang our songs. We folks like to sing our folksongs.

Many of my generation have been destroyed, self-destructed, insane, discredited, destroyed and destroyed some more except for the so-called survivors and many of these people are….well, we know the story….and now we even continue to destroy and discredit them, like we can’t get enough of this discreding and destroying each other and self-destructing. We just can’t get enough of this.

We all strive to become stars like in the karaoke and then when we become stars people continue to destroy us and destroy us some more and sometimes we start destroying all of them and they destroy all of us some more and some of us try to be nice about it and some of us try to be mean about it and some us go into exile, all over the known and unknown world.

I’m not a psychologist, but some of us need some therapy.

This is not necessarily about Anna Nicole Smith. When I read about her, her biography in wikipedia, I find that her parents are of my generation. They are my generation. Small Texas town, but my generation.

There are many Mexicans in that small Texas town. America also has a Mexico, N. Y. How many Mexicans in Mexico, N. Y.

This is called creative non-fiction. But we all have our creative fictions.

Marilyn was somebody’s child. Elvis was somebody’s child. Martin was somebody’s child. John was somebody’s child. Bobby was somebody’s child. We are all somebody’s child.

And most of us are sold and resold even in America. We might not all be fishing children. All over the world many of us are sold and resold. Some of us do the selling and the reselling.

Even Oprah is sold and resold–an Africa in America. But she’s the first African female billionaire in America. Good for Oprah she’s using “the wisdom of her elders” and “the wisdom of her ancestors,” and we assume that she is guided and can be guided by the divine. I assume that she assumes that she is so guided. Like many Africans she understand the need to be a spiritual person even with all her money.

She appears to be a leader of a new generation. I’m older, however, than Oprah. Oprah is not exactly a child. But we know who’s child Oprah is. Oprah makes sure to let us know. Oprah has her style of leadership for her generation. She appears to be defining “female leadership.”

But what of all these children?

Since I was a child myself I didn’t recognize any of these children. If I was a child watching American Idol and witnessing these children crying their sad tears of rejecting and dejecting–I wouldn’t recognize these children.

I work and have worked with the rejected, dejected and denied of many civilizations. I am older than many of them. I have been rejected, dejected, denied, destroyed, everything you can imagine just like many of them. Set up and set up and reset up and reset up some more and destroyed, witnessing my own rejected, dejected, denied, and destroyed friends (and enemies) helping to reject, deject, deny, and destroy others.

We’re all a real bunch. Many of us are in our various exiles. Some continue to appear on TV–but we are the elders. Some have a role in the new world. Others are calling each other names. Who to blame for the failures–or the successes?–of our generation? None of us are who we thought we might become or should have become.

Some of us–in retirement–are writing for the internet. Many of us don’t even use our own names. What freedom. Writers have always preferred pen names and anonymity.

Ernest Hemingway should have written in a pen name.

Thomas Hardy should have written in a pen name.

Richard Wright should have written in a pen name.

But who would play Ernest Hemingway, or Thomas Hardy, or Richard Wright in the movies. I’m still waiting for “The Richard Wright Story.” I mean the true story.

Richard Wright–probably the first real star, the first genuine star among the African American writers.

Ralph Ellison could not compete with Richard Wright.

James Baldwin could not compete with Richard Wright.

Toni Morrison is no Richard Wright.

But we are all somebody’s children. So let’s not scapegoat each other–too much.

However, of course, we have to continue our civilizations and find the best of the best among us to play the great roles. And to find the best of the best we have to destroy those who are not good enough, for whatever reason we decide upon. We are creating and destroying people all the time, selling and reselling each other. We are all fishing children. But certainly we’ve got to save the fishing children. All our fishing children. Certainly we can help Oprah to save these fishing children, if we think that will save us.

Some of us are not smart enough, some of us are not talented enough, some of us are not sweet enough, some of us are not agreeable enough, some of us are the wrong color, some of us are the wrong religion, some of us are the right color, some of us are the right religion, some of us don’t have any money, some of us have too much money, some of us have just enough money, some of us speak the wrong language, some of us speak the right language, some of us speak few languages, some of us speak many languages, some of us don’t speak enough, some of us don’t have enough education, some of us have too much education, some of us have just the right amount of education, some of us don’t deserve to win, some of us do deserve to win, some of us are….

We just continue generation after generation.

As an elder, I have been allowed to play many different roles in my own and other people’s civilizations, and for me it’s all the same role: how can we destroy you? Well, they’ve tried in many different ways, and I’m not exactly saintly. Like others, I try to be a nice and sweet person. Be sweet, mothers always tell their little kids. But that doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter how sweet we are, we’re never sweet enough. They destroy the sweet like they destroy the sour. We cannot be sweet or sour enough.

I’ve played most of the roles in the Western world, and the Western world is a warrior world. It’s a warrior world. Sometimes Eastern people recognize me and treat me honorably enough, but I’m not exactly their history. Or maybe they think I’m Eastern.

Why should somebody named Juarez write about a little white girl from a little town in Texas. A little white girl named the all American name Smith.

I can write about all of these “children”–white children, black children, brown children, yellow children. All of these rainbow children.

As an elder, these are all somebody’s children.

I was a child watching all these “children” being destroyed, but since I was a child myself and Malcolm X my mother and father’s generation, I didn’t realize that I was watching somebody’s child being destroyed right in front of me, and other people’s children trying to protect that child, and some people children trying to destroy that child, and none of the elders of that generation intervening and saying this is somebody’s child.

I have watched the most beloved of my generation and previous generations being destroyed and self-destructing in front me. And destroyers everywhere and self-destroyers everywhere.

I’ve watched the many players, destroying one group and then fawning on another to save themselves. Like when the players destroy one group of African peoples and then fawn on another group–let’s say the children. This has been going on for generations.

We all do this–perhaps in our own manner.

Who shall be the next little Anna Nicole Smith? Dreaming her Texas dreams? Dreaming her American dreams? Dreaming her international dreams?

This, as you know, is not just about little Anna Nicole Smith. And I don’t want to use her name to make news.

This article is about all of us. And we certainly don’t like using our names to make news or our children’s names to make news or our beloved names to make news.

Maybe some of us befriend little Anna like we befriended little Marilyn like we befriended little Elvis like we befriended all of these children.

Or perhaps some of us played dumb. We like to play dumb. Autistics also like to play dumb. Until somebody tells us we’re autistics. Does that mean we can still play dumb?

None of the elders of my generation are intervening either and saying wait a minute these are our children being destroyed every day in front of us, and we are helping and we are destroying ourselves also, and our children are destroying us, and we are destroying them, and we’re all continuing our pitiful civilizations.

But some of us are trying to find a way to be constructive and creative people. But even the constructive and creative people can be a destructive people and a non-creative when called upon to be destructive and non-creative. And many of us use the destroyed to make ourselves look good.

Don’t let Oprah use these pitiful African mothers and fathers selling their little fishing children to make herself look good. She can look good on her own.

Many of these sad pitiful Africans are greater than Oprah Winfrey with all her billions. These sad pitiful heroic Africans, even selling their children.

Africans in America have sold many of their children, like Latinos all over the world are selling their children. And I’m not going to mention anybody else. We’re selling and reselling each other every day.

The whores on cops look like ordinary women because they are ordinary women.

The men pleading not to be taken to jail are no different from the men taking them to jail.

“It’s understanding that works,” says a man on TV. “I wanna know where you were going with those documents and I wanna know right now.” (Book TV) I assume classified documents.

We’re all a true bunch. We’re all a real bunch. But you know this story.

The children of this generation are watching their Marilyn. Their Marilyns, their Elvises, their ….. Somebody said in AARP, some article–or maybe some other magazine for elders, talking about the Elvis of different generations. So the Elvis of this new generation is supposed to be Beyonce? I assume Beyonce, a young black female, is not going to try to play Elvis. I assume she is going to play herself. Although they tell me she has a stage personality.

When Madonna first made an appearance, this little dark-haired Italian girl making herself a blonde so she could appeal to the American need for a little white blonde girl to play Marilyn and to the American ideal of beauty. Even Latinas and African American women like their blonde hair. Some tried to get Madonna to play Marilyn for them. Or maybe Madonna was trying to play Marilyn. Instead she plays Evita, another child of the Latin world. With Peron, another child of the Latin world. Or maybe Madonna just plays herself, when she’s not trying to play Madonna.

Anna Nicole Smith….

This little girl from Texas, in America. Somebody’s child.