Bartcop,
I agree
with Rude Rich that we might never see a Democratic President again in
our lifetime.
The American Media is in full Geobels
mode and the youth among us will undoubtedly be branded,
because their parents already are.
When I speak out about these things, I am considered quaint and marginalized.
I am
an Air Force Veteran from the Viet Nam era (I enlisted to avoid being drafted...
I didn't approve of the war
and I didn't want to be forced to kill
Vietnamese). I am also a career firefighter. I have spent twenty-five
years of
responding to the aid of others... fighting
fires and saving lives (as we like to put it). I think that those
two things alone
qualifies me as a "real American" (although
I have always been a proud Liberal and that seems to undermine my claim).
I also spent 30 years on and off as a musician,
entertaining my fellow Americans for the pure joy of it.
I remember
a couple of bumper stickers that were shoved in my face in the 60's.
"America, Love it or Leave it"
and "My Country, Right or Wrong".
I remember thinking that they should say, "America, Love it or Change it"
and
"My Country, Either be Right, or make it Right".
Now that America is the land of the Greed and the home of the Empire,
I really don't love it any more.
I feel like a stranger in a strange land. I try to think of
the beauty of our natural resources
and I think about the dream of the Declaration
of Independence and our Constitution, but it just doesn't do it for me
anymore.
I am still faced with Disney Amerika, the
Land of Denial, and Willful Ignorance 101. Live, Buy, Consume, Die.
Only
in America, when faced with an obvious fuel shortage, would the people
buy larger, less fuel efficient vehicles
to careen down the roads in. This
"fuck 'em all" attitude is prevalent where I live. When you pull
up behind one, you see
a decal of a pre-teen, nasty brat vandal
who is pissing on something. It's like a belligerent vehicular tattoo.
They also tend
to put extra lights on their land boats
so that when they roll down country roads they can blind oncoming drivers
with impunity.
I think that when they started flying a
flag from each window of the HumVee, that was the last straw.
I have
decided that since I don't love America anymore, then I am leaving it.
I realize that puts me into the same category
as the Miami Cubans who expect others to
do their fighting for them, but I don't care anymore. I want to spend
time away from
the American Media, the Republican Loyalty
Oath and an SUV in every pot. I want to indulge in a culture that
is created among
people who are used to having little money.
I have always found the poorest among us has the most generous spirit and
that
tends to translate into a live and let
live philosophy that entices me away from Consumer Land.
Adios,
Mark T