With the country gearing up for another slanderous, hate-filled, vile round of campaigns for the presidential election, I'm beginning to dread more and more each day the general climate that will take over the United States. I dread very much the anger and the lies and the animosity and the BS that comes from all sides. It's more than obvious where I stand on all things political, and to all my Republican and Tea Partay friends, I make no apologies for that, just as I would expect you to make no apologies to me for your opinions on issues relating to our government. However, it pains me to know that a certain divide will come betwixt us in these coming months. These very long months. These are the days when all common decency and true integrity seem to disappear like water in a hot, hot desert.
More significantly, to me anyways, is that the decency dissipates not from people who have not had access to what the upper crusts of society know as proper etiquette, but from those people who've received all the schooling in the so-called manners of decent people. It's from these people that the lewd and nefarious behavior originates. Those who've had every ounce of formal education at their disposal and ingrained into their lives are the ones who seem to be the rudest. True colors of this kind shine like the sun, though they are greatly lacking in brilliant hues. These are dull colors, grey colors, lacking in hope and warmth, full of self-service and arrogance.
When our fore fathers founded our great government, they had a certain vision of this country that was based upon ideals of freedom and happiness for all Americans. Once upon a time, people made sacrifices for the greater good of all people in this country. For the ideals that they believed would create a healthy group of citizens. I don't believe that they would be proud of what has become of their intentions. More and more on the news, in conversations I hear people talking about mine mine mine. My money. My house. My cars. My my my. The ideals of the founding fathers have been replaced with the materialistic rights and demands of our current leaders and all others with influence on the governance of this nation. Idealism with the intentions of prosperity for all has been replaced with a selfish desire to fulfill the needs of a few individuals, and unfortunately it is those individuals with the greatest access to opportunity and whose lives have been most blessed and whose individual rights are most looked after.
And this makes no sense to me. How can people actually, and with dignity, proclaim, "This is mine. I deserve it. I don't have to share with you. So, there." When I was growing up, my mother would have sent me to my room and made me think long and hard if I had that attitude towards my family or friends or strangers. That kind of perception or display would never fly in my house. And, I'm pretty sure that it wouldn't happen in the churches of many Americans who vote to protect their own individual wealth over the ideals of happiness and prosperity for all.
So many people proclaim that great wealth and opportunity are available for anyone who puts in the effort and time. Right. I would beg to differ. I would venture to guess that most of those people never really had to come from absolute poverty and destitution, to climb out of nothing to attain what they say is possible, much less be a witness to it. There is a massive culture of underpriveleged people in this country, of all creeds and races, who grow up with nothing at all. Without parents who know how to help them fill out college applications or financial aid forms, who even know what those things looked like or where they would be found. Parents who grew up with the same kind of hopelessness and lack of resources or understanding that their children have. Many have no parents at all. No parents to help them learn what is appropriate, how to speak formally, how to study, to care how they perform on standardized tests. No parents to teach them how to balance a checkbook or plan for the future. For many people, there is no future with a bright outlook.
I have heard lots of people who I love and admire say that there is always a way, that everyone knows the difference between right and wrong, proper and improper, what is socially acceptable, what is attainable. Sorry, my loves, but this is just not so. Does it happen on occasion? Absolutely. But that occasion is as frequent as children growing up to be rockstars or famous athletes. The odds aren't great. It's an absolute dream.
And, what becomes of so many people, so many beautiful babies who, when they take their first breaths into this world, unscathed by violence and neglect and hopelessness that ultimately awaits them when they leave the hospital for home? The cycle continues, and, they are broken from the start, rejected by the greater parts of society who look down their noses at those they perceive as lazy and unwilling to reach for the stars of an American Dream that's supposed to be available for all. So, they watch, desperately, as the rich and famous and beautiful and cherished are flashed on television, pranced around on stages, paraded about magazine covers. They see what other folks have, all the while knowing that such a fate is far from their reach.
Our society covets these things: wealth, power, beauty, status, individualism. Our society does not covet the standards of the founding fathers, that notion of togetherness and making sacrifices to ensure that all people are treated equally and are provided with the comforts that all Americans so truly desire. We've reverted to a culture of bullies. A culture where people lie and cheat and hoard and belittle one another. A culture where people go on the news and actually boast about dreaming of a recession because they know that they can capitalize on the utter devastating loss of millions of people. That said people haven't had their asses kicked and handed back to them is baffling. Yep. A culture that supports bullies. The proof is in the pudding. Simply listen to the news. Take a drive through a neighborhood and check out the foreclosures. Better yet, drive through the "worst" parts of town and see how sad life is for so many people. Observe how we treat our very poor compared with the very rich.
I know so many people who bitch and complain about paying taxes to help this country get out of debt, people who have loads of money and lead extravagant lifestyles, who whine that they worked hard for what they have and they don't want anyone to tell them what to do with their money. Great, that's great. Well, I have a challenge for them. Why not step up to the plate and make that offer of their own selves? Why not DECIDE on their own accord to share their blessings and help out their fellow Americans? They can be the vehicle for the change that this country so desperately needs. We have to stop complaining about how we got to this point. By now the discussion is rhetorical. That horse has been beaten to death. Let's do it now, and get on with being the wonderful country that our forefathers meant for it to be.
Without more Americans helping to pick this country up out of the gutters, we are nothing more than a culture of bullies.
More significantly, to me anyways, is that the decency dissipates not from people who have not had access to what the upper crusts of society know as proper etiquette, but from those people who've received all the schooling in the so-called manners of decent people. It's from these people that the lewd and nefarious behavior originates. Those who've had every ounce of formal education at their disposal and ingrained into their lives are the ones who seem to be the rudest. True colors of this kind shine like the sun, though they are greatly lacking in brilliant hues. These are dull colors, grey colors, lacking in hope and warmth, full of self-service and arrogance.
When our fore fathers founded our great government, they had a certain vision of this country that was based upon ideals of freedom and happiness for all Americans. Once upon a time, people made sacrifices for the greater good of all people in this country. For the ideals that they believed would create a healthy group of citizens. I don't believe that they would be proud of what has become of their intentions. More and more on the news, in conversations I hear people talking about mine mine mine. My money. My house. My cars. My my my. The ideals of the founding fathers have been replaced with the materialistic rights and demands of our current leaders and all others with influence on the governance of this nation. Idealism with the intentions of prosperity for all has been replaced with a selfish desire to fulfill the needs of a few individuals, and unfortunately it is those individuals with the greatest access to opportunity and whose lives have been most blessed and whose individual rights are most looked after.
And this makes no sense to me. How can people actually, and with dignity, proclaim, "This is mine. I deserve it. I don't have to share with you. So, there." When I was growing up, my mother would have sent me to my room and made me think long and hard if I had that attitude towards my family or friends or strangers. That kind of perception or display would never fly in my house. And, I'm pretty sure that it wouldn't happen in the churches of many Americans who vote to protect their own individual wealth over the ideals of happiness and prosperity for all.
So many people proclaim that great wealth and opportunity are available for anyone who puts in the effort and time. Right. I would beg to differ. I would venture to guess that most of those people never really had to come from absolute poverty and destitution, to climb out of nothing to attain what they say is possible, much less be a witness to it. There is a massive culture of underpriveleged people in this country, of all creeds and races, who grow up with nothing at all. Without parents who know how to help them fill out college applications or financial aid forms, who even know what those things looked like or where they would be found. Parents who grew up with the same kind of hopelessness and lack of resources or understanding that their children have. Many have no parents at all. No parents to help them learn what is appropriate, how to speak formally, how to study, to care how they perform on standardized tests. No parents to teach them how to balance a checkbook or plan for the future. For many people, there is no future with a bright outlook.
I have heard lots of people who I love and admire say that there is always a way, that everyone knows the difference between right and wrong, proper and improper, what is socially acceptable, what is attainable. Sorry, my loves, but this is just not so. Does it happen on occasion? Absolutely. But that occasion is as frequent as children growing up to be rockstars or famous athletes. The odds aren't great. It's an absolute dream.
And, what becomes of so many people, so many beautiful babies who, when they take their first breaths into this world, unscathed by violence and neglect and hopelessness that ultimately awaits them when they leave the hospital for home? The cycle continues, and, they are broken from the start, rejected by the greater parts of society who look down their noses at those they perceive as lazy and unwilling to reach for the stars of an American Dream that's supposed to be available for all. So, they watch, desperately, as the rich and famous and beautiful and cherished are flashed on television, pranced around on stages, paraded about magazine covers. They see what other folks have, all the while knowing that such a fate is far from their reach.
Our society covets these things: wealth, power, beauty, status, individualism. Our society does not covet the standards of the founding fathers, that notion of togetherness and making sacrifices to ensure that all people are treated equally and are provided with the comforts that all Americans so truly desire. We've reverted to a culture of bullies. A culture where people lie and cheat and hoard and belittle one another. A culture where people go on the news and actually boast about dreaming of a recession because they know that they can capitalize on the utter devastating loss of millions of people. That said people haven't had their asses kicked and handed back to them is baffling. Yep. A culture that supports bullies. The proof is in the pudding. Simply listen to the news. Take a drive through a neighborhood and check out the foreclosures. Better yet, drive through the "worst" parts of town and see how sad life is for so many people. Observe how we treat our very poor compared with the very rich.
I know so many people who bitch and complain about paying taxes to help this country get out of debt, people who have loads of money and lead extravagant lifestyles, who whine that they worked hard for what they have and they don't want anyone to tell them what to do with their money. Great, that's great. Well, I have a challenge for them. Why not step up to the plate and make that offer of their own selves? Why not DECIDE on their own accord to share their blessings and help out their fellow Americans? They can be the vehicle for the change that this country so desperately needs. We have to stop complaining about how we got to this point. By now the discussion is rhetorical. That horse has been beaten to death. Let's do it now, and get on with being the wonderful country that our forefathers meant for it to be.
Without more Americans helping to pick this country up out of the gutters, we are nothing more than a culture of bullies.
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