why anyone would be proud to be an american is absolutely beyond me. don't get me wrong- i live here and parts of it are lovely- nature has a way of overcoming almost everything. but if you look at the big picture long enough- it ain't a pretty place. set aside for a moment the absolutely unaesthetic, drab strip malls and parking lots that are identical to every community from boise to biloxi or the mcmansions that are so generic inside that you may as well live in a few cardboard boxes glued together--- and look at the actual people of america. that's where things take a turn for the truly awful.
americans, by and large, have no idea what it means to be an american. or perhaps i was sold a false bill of goods- it's possible. i hear all sorts of blather about 'taking our country back' and 'support our troops' and lots of folksy anecdotes that are complete fabrications coming from the right these days. layin' it out in lavender here folks ;) the right wing is full of shit right up to their beady eyeballs. when i look around my own community, i see people throwing garbage out their car windows and cutting people off without signaling after tailgating for miles; i see people setting appointments with my husband's coworkers, only to 'dark house'- meaning simply not showing up as it apparently wasn't important; i see people complaining about not having money for living expenses after having their nails manicured and their hair dyed; i see people using services meant for the truly needy after having quit a job with the government that had benefits; i see people who deliberately take a low paying job in order to qualify for poor folks' new first home benefits; etc.,
i could keep going- you get the picture.
and i see people waving the flag and singing to jesus while strapping on bombs and guns and planning on wiping out innocent folks and their families- whether they be cops or family services providers. i see parents so disconnected with their offspring that they don't know- or don't care that their children are abusing and bullying other's children to death. i see people who consistently put profit over people and i see people deliberately obstructing anything that didn't come from their political platform--- on the basis that it must be bad- it's an idea from 'them'- i see a country so polarly divided ideologically that it's simply a matter of time before shots are fired and martial law is forced---- in order to give them a tangible excuse for their hatred.
i was taught that americans had generosity of spirit; compassion for people who had less than them- whether it be democracy or basic human necessities; i was taught that americans had independent, 'can do' spirit and were the action taking go getters of the globe; i was taught that americans protected their democracy against extremists- and that our bill of rights was for the people; i was taught that americans were brave and sought out the truth and didn't take things at face value; americans were free and we welcomed others to our way of democracy and freedom. now, i am no constitutional expert- but i am an american and i have actually read the document through twice- and no where in there does it say that the right wing is america and the left wing isn't. no where does it say that christians are americans and non christians aren't. in fact, it actually sets up checks and balances against those encroachments that have been eroded away by the republican party and their ilk.
what i cannot understand is how anyone can believe the palins and boehners and limbaughs. my personal thought is that these fearmongering bigots are not americans- although they claim to be. but my other thought is that there are a whole lot of other folks who can't be bothered to think of anything other than going to a movie or crappy service at a restaurant- when their children's lives hang in the balance of the next decade. but who am i to say? i have lived most of my life insulated from the culture at large- and i have no children of my own to worry about. should i be bothered to worry about yours?
i see this amongst my acquaintances, friends, family members, and total strangers on the street- and the only thing i can figure out to do is to hunker down and stay as clear from them as i can. and make sure i have a really good security system.....
3 comments:
"… iam pridem, ex quo suffragia nulli uendimus, effudit curas; nam qui dabat olim imperium, fasces, legiones, omnia, nunc se continet atque duas tantum res anxius optat, panem et circenses."
(… Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses) Juvenal, Satire 10.77–81
What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun." Ecclesiastes 1:9
One thing I remember is that we are rarely given the good news by the commercial mainstream media. An exception is NBC's Brian Williams feature at the close of his daily broadcast -- Making a Difference.
By and large, however our own existential "reality" becomes what we know of the tragedies in our home or neighboring towns, the latest most outrageous threat insult or antic of some wingnut, and the latest score of who's up or who's down in the inane political Not-News of the day.
It is about ratings and what sells, not reporting reality.
If we would all focus on the horizon occasionally, we would see beautiful sunrises and sunsets like you have in your title banner.
Peace and namaste, my friend.
'the right wing is full of shit'. I agree with all you wrote and especially this part of it.
It isn't just an American thing, what you say is going on exactly the same here in the UK and it's maddening.
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