As the father of a child just reaching adulthood and heading out on her long life journey - I'm bewildered. The bad behavior, lack of direction, bullying, defeatism and the sight of grown-ups either dully looking at the television or the void - is something I thought I would never see in this country - it looks like we are giving up.
Ex-President George W. Bush set the tone for the present American malaise. We needed a leader and he blithely told us to go shopping. And boy did we love that – we love to shop. The problem was and is – shopping isn’t the answer for anything.
I try to have this conversation with folks and I invariably get; “It’s the economy stupid” – no stupid, it’s our perception of what we are as a people. We have never had more opportunity in our history to look at ourselves (television, movies, cell phones, song, laptops, desktops, ipads, etc.) And, I don’t think we like what we see. So, instead of taking any personal responsibility - we head next door to pinch or ridicule our neighbor.
President Bush had us. We were united and aware. Can you imagine Franklin Delano Roosevelt announcing over the radio after the attack on Pearl Harbor – “It’s going to be alright – why don’t you just go shopping.” When you think about it - it’s pathetic. And, FDR could have made matters even worse – he could have carpet bombed Catholic Ireland - England, our ally at that time, would have loved to have gotten those cheeky terrorists out of the way. If the present crop of grown-ups were in charge during the Great Depression and the Axis assault on humanity – we would now be living in the ninth decade of the Thousand Year Reich.
The last time we had a national leader that was so outrageously presumptuous as to talk to us about our values as a nation, in a meaningful way, was President Jimmy Carter. We immediately pinched and ridiculed the tar out of him. We called B.S. on that – we wanted to go shopping. Thank goodness for all of us shoppers – Ronald Reagan showed up. Every base behavior, motive, agenda and vice of a good people was played out in the 1980’s under the watchful eye of President Reagan, whose real messiah was Adam Smith, not the other guy.
Raw Capitalism, as a religious and spiritual agenda,is destroying this country. We desperately need a leader that will stand up, risk pinching and ridicule, and remind us of who we once were.*
*Previously posted at opednews.com
P.s. I'm ad libbing now, I simply intended to post this diary and move on. But, because of all that is happening now I feel compelled to give voice to something that has really been bothering me the last couple of days. Things have gotten exceptionally discombobulated lately e.g. the legislative B.S. and the Wikileaks thing. Does anybody care about our President as a person? Is he just the President and not Barack Obama, the person. Yes, Yes he's got to be tough - he's the boss of the biggest, baddest country on the planet - but, my goodness which one of us could take on this responsibility? I don't mean just being President (which is more than enough), I mean being the very first African American President. Not only does he have people that will not support him because he is a Democrat - he has people that will not support him because he is black. This has never happened in the history of this country - he is the first. He is the first and only - this will never happen again.
My daughter and younger people don't get this. This country went through hell to get here. People were tortured and murdered and sacrifices beyond imagining were made so that Barack Obama could lead this country. I am not advocating for blindly following him - I'm advocating for truth.
I'm a 6'2" two hundred and thirty pound white construction guy. I had to sit for quite a few minutes in the little voting cubicle after I had cast my vote for President because I was crying. It was probably one of the most significant things that I had ever done in my life. I was actually participating in something truly profound in the history of this country.
I am disgusted with most of the political commentary out there right now - we are giving away our power. In my opinion, if we want change and we want to move into the future - we have to put something on the line. We have to trust our power - we have to give President Obama our energy and our trust and make our voices heard in a powerful and significant way. The other team only plays only in the mud and the past. Let's stay in the light.