The United States is broken. Since it's inception it has always been in some condition of disrepair, it is a work in progress, an experiment even. Lately it seems to be falling apart at an alarming rate but (much like my house when i first bought it) it doesn't mean it can't be fixed.
i know for myself i have become quite disenfranchised over the past 6-7 years and at times have even thought about how it might be nice to live in a different country. i do love Ireland and they currently don't have an evil idiot at the helm. As i have had a bit more down time lately to meditate on things i realized that this is the country for me and a chaotic place worth fixing up.
What other country could have been the birthplace of punk? The birthplace of bebop jazz? Hardcore? Beat literature? What other country on the face of the Earth could have invented skateboarding? Snowboarding? The list is endless.
All of these great things have been created by people unsatisfied with how things were. All were created by people carving out their own reality, their own scene, their own definition of what is American. The holes, the tares in the fabric of this country are where innovators find room to carve their niche. This is what America is about. As those empty spaces are being closed up by the status-quo we need to push for our own space more than ever.
Those who call us 'unpatriotic' or chant 'love it or leave it' need to have their teeth knocked in. These complacent mutherfuckers are not just part of the problem, they ARE the problem. If those unsettled by what has gone on in this country all left or if we listened to these flag-waving wastes of oxygen there would still be slaves in this country, women wouldn't have the right to vote, children would still be getting seriously maimed or killed working long hours in unsafe mills. Again this list could go on and on.
The status-quo is not necessarily what's morally right, in fact it rarely is in the right. As a US citizen it is my right and more so my duty to rant, to push, to fight for how things should be. Our strength is not from some homogeny but in the utter chaos of the mix of the people who co-inhabit this continent spanning do-it-yourself home improvement job.
My argument here is that an American is not some blank-faced, nameless, pick-up driving cowboy wearing blue jeans that the commercials would have you believe. Take the next 5 seconds to try and name a contributor to this country that fits that description: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5. See you couldn't, could you. When asked about people who make America what it is you come up with independent and original thinkers: the Roosevelts, Miles Davis, Rachael Carson, Jack Kerouac... choose who you will. None of them went with the flow.
There is no room for small-minded, blind followers in this country. They need to shut the fuck up, go down to Walmart, and stay there so that they are not in the way of the rest of us. There's work to be done. i've got a home that needs repairs.
No comments:
Post a Comment