OPINION: BURKHART: The myth of 'Gunsmoke'
May 14—The painful lawlessness of America's 1800s came alive on the radio, 1952-1960, and then again on TV from 1955-1975. We found the wild west setting of Dodge City, Kansas, intriguing and quite entertaining. The radio, and then TV show was "Gunsmoke;" it reigned for 20 seasons as "must-see TV."
The free-lance 19th century American lawlessness afforded every opportunity for wholesale crime, violence, murder, theft, and overall chaos. That particular social setting has accommodated an unbridled fantasy and fabrication. The lawless society with all its unchecked human waywardness, selfishness, and greed, created a hellacious time and place in American history. The people at once faced invasive threats to their property, livelihood and well-bring. With the absence of law enforcement, it was incumbent on each citizen to ward off freelance invaders — gangs, thieves and desperados. It was a dangerous and life-threatening time.
How is it that we find such a perilous time for life to be so entertaining? Sitting in the comfortable amenities of our homes with a radio or TV, made possible entertainment from this tenuous and dangerous period of our history.
Today multi-murders rampaging in our communities and throughout "our land of the free and home of the brave," is perpetuated by psychopathic romanticizing of human suffering.
Although the harsh realism of Dodge City is the purported setting for entertaining us, it is fanaticized fiction, blacking out American history. Such entertainment is a disservice to our early brothers and sisters of America.
But it seems we humans are able, with passage of a century or so, to fictionalize and camouflage the painful facts of human life; even to the extent of presenting those days as attractive and delightful.
The "Hatfields and McCoys feud" of the mid 1800s on the Virginia-Kentucky state line has experienced a grandiose whitewashing to become an entertaining satirical play and a TV hit. The atrocities of the lawless 1800s of America are here again construed for commerce and entertainment purposes.
During my childhood days of the 1930s, movie screens were full of "Cowboys and Indians" movies, a comprehensive misrepresentation of that tragic and sad period of American history.
Transposing the pains of the past to fictional entertainment appears as a common American commercialization pursuit.
May we honestly affront the blatant bloodshed of our repeated mass shootings TODAY; and respect those of our forebears.
Though our entertaining quests are innocent and sincere, let us not blur the truth of our history.
