i've been thinking about American history a lot lately. Have things always sucked like this? Will Bush go down as the worst president ever, or will there be no one left to record the history? Who will win out in this upcoming election? Have Americans always been this easily duped?
A look back in history shows that in the past, Americans have given black males opportunities before they have given women those same opportunities. At times, women were not allowed in rallies for civil rights because organizers were afraid that they too would ask for rights. These promoters thought that women wanting rights as well would hurt their own race's chances of achieving equal rights. Although this is a sad commentary on our progress is does bode well for Obama. It seems that it is still better to be a male, of any race, in this country than to be a female. Just look at the GOP's VP selection (big letters are fun). If she does not set women's rights back at least a decade i do not know what would.
Although that lipsticked up hick from Alaska tells us we need to stop looking backwards, looking backwards is exactly what i have been doing. Maybe it is my 'anti-authority' mindset that has me doing the complete opposite of what that idiotic heli-hunter says but i find that i am not alone. Not alone now and not alone throughout America's history.
We are a country who has rebelled against authority over and over again throughout our short history. The heroes in our text books were all terrorists. Throwing tea into the sea. Throwing snowballs at British soldiers (my we like throwing things... maybe that is why baseball is America's pastime). i never understood why the south were called 'rebels' when the northern souls were the ones who rebelled against slavery. Ending slavery was more important that keeping our country together.
Civil disobedience is our obligation as Americans. Whether you look up to Henry David Thoreau or Martin Luther King Jr start including you middle name and disobey. As those before you have rebelled against unfair taxation: rebel against what our government is doing with our money. As those before you have rebelled for civil rights and the rights of women: rebel that homosexuals deserve the same rights as heterosexuals. Whites had to help blacks get treated fairly, men had to help women get treated fairly, now us heterosexuals have to help homosexuals by demanding that they too get treated fairly.
For years our government has said that imposing necessary environmental standards would mean them wrongfully meddling in the free market. What are they doing now? If they are not meddling with the free market now i am not sure what would be considered such. Maybe if a hurricane floods out DC then they will finally take notice of the havoc we have caused and the legacy we leave our children. Or more likely, the flooding would just result in our politicians taking even more time off.
Imagine if Clinton had said that the internet was too dangerous and made it illegal. What state would our economy have been in during the 1990's had we not seen the internet boom. Bush Jr did just that by making stem cell research, in essence, illegal. That could have been our next economic wave but instead he decided to paddle out past it and we have been left in flat waters. Even the most modest of environmental regulations could have helped in creating a new green economy but that too was crushed under the Regan era fossil fuel economy type thinking of this current administration.
After years of chastising the United States as if from afar during the Bush Jr administration i look at the politicians running at every level in this upcoming election and am nothing but disappointed. Is this the best we can do? Is this what we deserve?
NO!
The US is not some country i watch on TV, it is my country and i want it back. i am tired of feeling like an outsider here because i do not shop at the mall to get over 9/11, or because i do not take out loans for more than i can handle, or because i want someone smart in office rather than electing who i would rather sit beside at a sporting event. This is MY country. In fact this is more so my country than those sheep that i feel excluded by because the true Americans throughout history have done what they know and feel is right, not just what the government tells them to do. That is what has caused us to progress and what has caused us to be role models for so many in the past. It is time to step back up into that role in the world.
i for one will no longer hold my tongue in public settings no matter who i may offend in hopes that it will give strength to others to do the same.
Clean coal is an even more idiotic concept than jumbo shrimp. If you think that gays are any less human beings than you are, then you are just wrong. If you do not want to stop the dying of Americans in Iraq by bringing them home than you do not support the troops. If you are driving around an eight passenger SUV with a 'support the troops' magnet on the back you are a fucking lier. USE LESS OIL if you support the troops.
Either start taking actions to protect the environment or stop this baby-bump fad. You cannot have it both ways. The Earth cannot handle how we are currently living so unless we change, our children will not have the opportunity to take care of themselves. How selfish is that?
This is my country, and the sooner we all start taking ownership of that the quicker things will improve. As echoed many times before (including in 'V for Vendetta') i will borrow the saying once again: people should not be afraid of their governments, governments should be afraid of their people.
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