From Sea To Shining Sea

After almost three and a half years of blogging, these last few days I have been finding it difficult to care.  I've always had varied interests, but since 2004 they have been limited to politics, cooking and a few other assorted hobbies, but mainly politics.

Through the years, many of the blogs I enjoyed reading caught Ted Barlow disease and disappeared.  The latest were Mixter's Mix and Ponzo (I guess I'm not an invited reader).  I doubt if I'll quit, but my energy is low and readers are few.  I am a first-born and will always have an opinion about everything (just ask me!), but I'm tired of being irritated and disappointed in my country and my government.  That isn't going to change because I stop writing about it constantly, but the world needs more positivity and right now the only thing I'm positive about is that we are rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

In the last four years it has become sadly apparent to me that most Americans are of the sit and wait variety.  They are willing to sit and wait, hoping that things will change for the better and are content to focus on their own lives and the lives of troubled stars, pregnant stars and "reality" shows that have nothing to do with real life.  Anything but paying attention to how the country has changed around them.

What really brought it home to me was this season of Jeopardy!  One of the things I noticed about the contestants was that they knew stuff about movies and obscure musical groups and very little about the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Revolutionary War or how and why this country was founded, but they could name some specialized mammal that I, nor anyone I know, has ever heard of.  Now, that's depressing.

The election isn't going to change things by much since our freedoms have been whittled down to almost nothing and there wasn't a peep from the general populace during the process and I don't expect a majority will demand them back.  Using the excuse that it won't get worse is just sad.  Our media hasn't done its job and the people haven't asked it to, people are too busy pretending that life is a reality show and everyone will get a do-over.  And besides, it won't affect them, it only affects the bad people.  Until it's too late and their homes and jobs are gone.

When I was a little girl and we were stationed on Air Force bases throughout the world, unlike today we had no choice about radio or televisions stations.  It was Armed Forces Radio and Television Service and the government spin on world happenings, or it was learn a new language.   No such thing as cable or the internet.   I'll never forget going to see the original Batman movie and having Burt Ward's voice blow us out of the seats.  We had been watching the tv show on a Puerto Rican station (because tv didn't start until the news came on at five and went off again at ten) and Robin had a boy's voice, so the change was pretty noticeable.  AFRTS eventually showed Star Trek a year behind the States and we were really surprised to see that black girl on the bridge.  But I digress.

I loved going to the movies, except for one thing.  The Star Spangled Banner was played before every movie and it was required that you stand and put your hand over your heart.  I hated it.  When we got back to the States and moved to California we still had to recite the Pledge of Allegiance every morning at the beginning of classes.  I hated that also.  Only seniors were allowed to not stand and recite and when I became one, my butt never left the chair.  Not once did I feel guilty or unpatriotic.  Otherwise I wouldn't have joined the Army two days after graduating high school.

Why did I hate doing those things so much?  Well first of all, they forced us to do it.  Since it was by rote and not intention, it was just like reciting the ABCs and had less impact.  Ask anybody you know to recite the Pledge or the Anthem slowly and sound out the words and you'll realize that 98% of the people have not a clue as to what they are saying.  If, and it's a big one, they can do it without the singsong repetition.  It's amazing how many words aren't correct.

Secondly, America The Beautiful should be our anthem not some old Enlgish drinking song.  We really do have a purple majesty, they are called the Rockies and they don't try to usurp power for themselves or their cronies.

I want my country back even though I know that it's impossible.  The one from the late sixties and seventies that had hope, that just knew things were going to get better and wasn't afraid to stand up and demand that justice be served to those who deserved it.  Not even a President was immune.  Not the country that currently exists in its place and demands that someone who lied about taking steroids be forced to spend years in jail while one who outed a CIA spy has his sentence commuted and people are begging for him to be pardoned.   My how the priorities have changed.

And not in a good way.

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