Questions, Questions

I occasionally post over at the Big Brass Blog along with a few other people. In the last two weeks, there have been a few posts written by my fellow bloggers that have really hit home, positing the questions of what we as Americans and human beings stand for at our core.

It started innocently enough with a post by Konagod. He was writing about growing up with the Star Trek dream, how much he had looked forward to the future and wondering what the heck had happened to it. It was like reading my own mind.

Logic dictates that if we were on the moon in 1969, almost forty years later we should be further in space than we are now, but we aren't. Mankind is an aggressive species and for the last five hundred years had been focusing that aggression outward in conquering and settling the earth. It isn't that man has been peaceful, far from it, but there was always the goal of achieving more, of seeing new places and exploring new environments.

For the last twenty years it has been about contraction. Holding on to the past because of fear of the future. It isn't just an American problem because there isn't much difference between the Taliban and the religious fundamentalists determined to foist their way of life on the majority here at home while whining about being persecuted.

We talk about freedom and democracy but do nothing as our civil rights disappear because we can still watch American Idol and buy lattes on almost every corner. That isn't freedom, that's complacency.

Why is just getting through the day a goal? Is that all anyone wants their life to be? You get up, rush around to go to work at a job you hate, race out of work to sit in traffic before you pick up food from who knows where so you can sit in front of the tv before you go to bed. Repeat for four consecutive days, laze around for two and do it again for the rest of the year.

Where is the hope? Where is the excitement? Where is the accomplishment and satisfaction of a job well done? Where is the pleasure of celebrating the quiet moments with friends and family? Where is the feeling that you have improved the world for your children instead of holding steady or sliding backward?

Do you know your neighbors? Do you spend recreational time with them? Can you trust them to watch your children in an emergency? Why not?

We can't go backward but we can go forward. Every day make an effort to smile and talk with your neighbors, you will find that they are people just like you even if they don't sound or look like it.

Who would believe that Ronald Reagan said it best? We really would change our priorities if an alien race suddenly appeared. Vulcan or Centauri, I don't care which as long as they get here soon so we can live up to our potential, not disappear in a flaming ball of fire.

Were there enough questions in this post?