The following essay was written by Tori London -- I am very impressed by her writing and her thoughts and I want to share it with others. Thanks Tori for remaining a true patriot in this time of befuddlement and inaction.
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I am a 60s child in the true sense of the word, having gone through high school and college all within that decade. Our motto was turn on and tune out. While my method today has changed the effect is very much the same... Now I turn on my Ipod touch with earbuds and tune out the insanity of the news. My tastes are eclectic ranging from Beethoven to Metallica to Peter Allen to . . .
Well, sadly as I have repeated all too often lately to friends, I am so disgusted with my country of late that I who have always loved being a citizen of it, now often find myself ashamed. Where are the ideals? Where is the caring for our fellow citizens? Where is our sense of real right and wrong?
This morning I was listening to Harry Chapin, who like Tom Lehrer were prescient in so much of what they wrote.
Hello my Country
I once came to tell everyone your story
Your passion was my poetry
And your past my most potent glory
Your promise was my prayer
Your hypocrisy my nightmare
And your problems fill my present
Are we both going somewhere?
----- Harry Chapin "There Only Was One Choice" 1976
The rest of the lyrics can be found at: http://www.lyrics007.com/Harry%20Chapin%20Lyrics/There%20Only%20Was%20One%20Choice%20Lyrics.html
Hearing those lyrics, in fact looking at them in print, and seeing the date when they were written is mind boggling! Have we learned nothing in 34 years??? I guess that answer is obvious. If anything things IMO are so much worse and more dangerous. Back then we didn't have groups wanting to attack us just because of who we are and successfully recruiting volunteers to do just that!
Do you remember a time when we could actually vote for the person running for office and not have to be concerned about the party in power? Not that I feel at this point either party is worth a $3 bill - one may have good intentions for the most part but lack leadership, balls, creativity, stamina, and maybe that little bit of meanness necessary to get their vision accomplished. The other party only wants power, money, and a society where they are the ruling class much like the robber barons with the rest of us playing serfs to their lords of the manor. They have learned how to play the system well . . . and now do with great finesse what they accused the other part of doing with much less effect. There is no Teddy Roosevelt to rise from their ranks to bust trust and try to set things back to what the founders intended - and there is obviously no Franklin Roosevelt who saw the needs and made them happen no matter what anyone thought of him!
What part of the concept of change do they not understand???
The current crop of elected officials, I cannot call them leaders since they are not leading, are more concerned with popularity and whether people want to have a beer with them than with governing. Our President wants bipartisanship, a laudable if impractical goal - doesn't recognize you can't have cooperation if only one side wants it. Why is that such an obscure concept? At what point does one stop turning the other cheek and just hit the bastards in the mouth?
At what point do legislators do what their constituents want rather than what the party bosses tell them? At what point do we have people who have the say in how this country is run take a look at the hand basket we are in and where hand baskets inevitably lead and do something about it? At what point do they stop worrying about their tanning bed appointment, their inamoratas, their own selfish needs, and focus on the job to which they were elected? At what point do they stop looking in everyone else's bedroom and think about the real issues concerning the United States and the world??
Ideas are wonderful if they can be implemented. The people who have vision need to recognize that brick walls are broken with sledge hammers and wrecking balls not with saying please and begging. I'm sorry to say threats work better in politics than carrots. Sometimes you need a blend of both - heavy on the threats with this mob! As a parent I would like to send them all to bed without dinner for the foreseeable future, take away all their toys, and make them stand in corners until they have no choice but to talk to each other in good faith.
Until that time... I'm turning on and tuning out... at least there is still some great music out there with which to tune out!
--
Some people need to own luggage, land, other people, makes them feel secure.
But all that can be taken away - and in the end all you have is your story.
I'm just trying to live a good one.
---The Drover
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I am a 60s child in the true sense of the word, having gone through high school and college all within that decade. Our motto was turn on and tune out. While my method today has changed the effect is very much the same... Now I turn on my Ipod touch with earbuds and tune out the insanity of the news. My tastes are eclectic ranging from Beethoven to Metallica to Peter Allen to . . .
Well, sadly as I have repeated all too often lately to friends, I am so disgusted with my country of late that I who have always loved being a citizen of it, now often find myself ashamed. Where are the ideals? Where is the caring for our fellow citizens? Where is our sense of real right and wrong?
This morning I was listening to Harry Chapin, who like Tom Lehrer were prescient in so much of what they wrote.
Hello my Country
I once came to tell everyone your story
Your passion was my poetry
And your past my most potent glory
Your promise was my prayer
Your hypocrisy my nightmare
And your problems fill my present
Are we both going somewhere?
----- Harry Chapin "There Only Was One Choice" 1976
The rest of the lyrics can be found at: http://www.lyrics007.com/Harry%20Chapin%20Lyrics/There%20Only%20Was%20One%20Choice%20Lyrics.html
Hearing those lyrics, in fact looking at them in print, and seeing the date when they were written is mind boggling! Have we learned nothing in 34 years??? I guess that answer is obvious. If anything things IMO are so much worse and more dangerous. Back then we didn't have groups wanting to attack us just because of who we are and successfully recruiting volunteers to do just that!
Do you remember a time when we could actually vote for the person running for office and not have to be concerned about the party in power? Not that I feel at this point either party is worth a $3 bill - one may have good intentions for the most part but lack leadership, balls, creativity, stamina, and maybe that little bit of meanness necessary to get their vision accomplished. The other party only wants power, money, and a society where they are the ruling class much like the robber barons with the rest of us playing serfs to their lords of the manor. They have learned how to play the system well . . . and now do with great finesse what they accused the other part of doing with much less effect. There is no Teddy Roosevelt to rise from their ranks to bust trust and try to set things back to what the founders intended - and there is obviously no Franklin Roosevelt who saw the needs and made them happen no matter what anyone thought of him!
What part of the concept of change do they not understand???
The current crop of elected officials, I cannot call them leaders since they are not leading, are more concerned with popularity and whether people want to have a beer with them than with governing. Our President wants bipartisanship, a laudable if impractical goal - doesn't recognize you can't have cooperation if only one side wants it. Why is that such an obscure concept? At what point does one stop turning the other cheek and just hit the bastards in the mouth?
At what point do legislators do what their constituents want rather than what the party bosses tell them? At what point do we have people who have the say in how this country is run take a look at the hand basket we are in and where hand baskets inevitably lead and do something about it? At what point do they stop worrying about their tanning bed appointment, their inamoratas, their own selfish needs, and focus on the job to which they were elected? At what point do they stop looking in everyone else's bedroom and think about the real issues concerning the United States and the world??
Ideas are wonderful if they can be implemented. The people who have vision need to recognize that brick walls are broken with sledge hammers and wrecking balls not with saying please and begging. I'm sorry to say threats work better in politics than carrots. Sometimes you need a blend of both - heavy on the threats with this mob! As a parent I would like to send them all to bed without dinner for the foreseeable future, take away all their toys, and make them stand in corners until they have no choice but to talk to each other in good faith.
Until that time... I'm turning on and tuning out... at least there is still some great music out there with which to tune out!
--
Some people need to own luggage, land, other people, makes them feel secure.
But all that can be taken away - and in the end all you have is your story.
I'm just trying to live a good one.
---The Drover
posted by mary bishop | 10:47 AM
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3 comments
