My Country T’is Of Thee…
This morning I woke up at 6 am. (That’s sleeping late for me.) I made myself a cup of tea and sat down at the computer to just check on a few things.
One of the blogs that I follow closely is Steve Olson’s, because I know that every now and then, I’ll read a post there that really gets me smokin’! This post is one of those!
The title of Steve’s post is: When did America become a nation of frightened wimps?
Click over and read his post right now, then come right back here to read my response. (This is going to be great!)
In his post, Steve poses several questions that I would like to respond to. Let me list his main points.
One: When did Americans become cowards?
Two: When did our civil rights slip away?
Three: When did our schools become so crime infested that we need police in every school?
Four: When did we allow government to seize our property without due process?
Five: When did we start jailing adolescents for having sex?
There are a few other points, but these are the main ones.
My response is this.
To number one: Some Americans have always been cowards! There were Tories during the Revolution. There were appeasers during the Civil War, on both sides. There were appeasers during World War II, arguably the most justifiable war in our history. The appeasers won during Vietnam, and they are winning today.
On this point, I think what Steve is really asking is when did the average American assign the responsibility for maintaining their freedoms to others?
That would be during the Vietnam War. That war was a turning point in our history.
I’m no historian, but to my mind several things occurred at the same time to change American opinion toward that war.
It’s a fact that for years preceding the war, the Soviets had been building up a huge worldwide propaganda machine. This machine was, of course, very anti-American, and also was very efficient. It was about this time that Euro-socialism came to the forefront. It was also about this time that India became a socialist state.
Although we had literally saved Western Europe from totalitarian domination, only ten to twenty years later America was reviled in Europe. Why was this?
One was old guard snobbery. For instance, the French, who have not been a world power since about 1800 (Napoleon), turned on us right after the end of World War II. Giving in to socialism, it was easy for the French to be seduced by their own communist traitors and cowards into anti-Americanism.
Of all the time I’ve spent in France, only once has anyone thanked me for liberating their country from Nazi Germany. That was actually in Holland when I met an elderly French couple who when they found out I was American said: “we owe you so much.”
During Vietnam, socialism became the “ism” du jour of the American intellectual elite. This lasted until 1990 when the Soviet Union crumbled, mainly thanks to Regan’s military buildup, which bankrupted the country. At that point, American intellectuals (snobs) migrated from socialism to environmentalism.
Anti-Americanism has always been fashionable among certain types of self-hating snobs in our country. As this self-hate has filtered through our media and leaked out into our popular culture, it’s gotten to the point where you’re looked at as a rube if you’re not anti-American.
What has this to do with American cowardice? Well, this.
A significant percentage (about 45%) of our population really believes that America is no longer special in the sense that we hold a unique place in the world as the defenders of freedom and the exporters of capitalism (the economic equivalent of freedom).
According to our last democratic presidential candidate our solders are not defenders of the freedoms we all enjoy, but are thugs who break into houses in Iraq and terrorize families.
Half our population actually believes that we’re anti-environmental. Look, we didn’t sign the Kyoto Protocol, an agreement which would have severely hampered our own industries while giving free reign to so called developing nations, like China.
Again, half our population wants national health coverage. That is they want the coverage, and they want me to pay for it. Nationalized health plans have been tried in Western Europe and Canada and have been proven not to work.
What we as a country stand for stood for, what our ancestors fought for, original American values such as the rights of the individual are being attacked in the media on such a daily, even hourly, basis, that it’s no wonder so many of our people have no idea what the “American way” is actually about.
If you didn’t believe in the assumptions your country is based upon, why would you be willing to fight for it?
Ours is a cancer that is killing us from within.
The question should not be why are we such wimps, but how in the world do those of us who actually believe in and practice the American Way survive in this country?
Even our politicians have abandoned us! They can’t even protect us from the mass migration of illegal immigrants, one out of twelve of whom are felons!
Point number two: Our civil rights have slipped away due to several factors. Technology is one. People blame the Republicans for spying on Americans (and rightly so), but that actually started under the Clinton administration in a joint effort of the English speaking nations, Canada, the U.S., England, New Zealand, and Australia. Ever since communications have been digitized, monitoring them has become very easy.
We can’t just blame technology, however. A concerted attack on free speech is being launched in our country, again similar to the successful curtailing of free speech in Europe.
Did you know that in Europe it is illegal to use Nazi symbols? Now, if you’re a neo-fascist, you’re a sicko in my book, but I still believe that you have the right to believe in Hitler’s nonsense if you want. You have the right to speak that crap and even write it.
In Europe it is illegal to use hate speech! I’m not much of a hate speech person (I don’t hate anybody), but to make utterances illegal has to be seen as a direct attack on human freedom.
Whatever happened to the idea that “I may not agree with what you say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.”
Now, due to this Imus nonsense, the media elected arbiters of morality are using that idiot’s hateful and stupid remarks to stage the beginnings of a European-style attack on freedom of speech. Look, Imus is a turd, but first it’s going to be Imus, then Rush Limbaugh, then who? You and me, brother!
The third nail in the coffin of our civil rights comes from our pathetic educational system. Do you realize that only about half to three fourths of our students graduate from high school knowing their multiplication tables? Ask them to read a newspaper and probably fewer than that would be able to.
Not only is freedom not free, it’s not for idiots, either!
Item number three: Our schools actually are crime infested. I should know; I work in a public school. My school is not a ghetto school, but we’ve had rival gangs invade our school, kids caught with guns, kids wielding knives, and every drug imaginable. My experience teaching public school has made me decide to homeschool our own children in a few years. Frankly, I wouldn’t set foot in my school, or in any average American public school, if there was not a police presence.
Item number four: When did we start allowing the federal government to take our stuff without due process? That’s easy–1913 with the 16th amendment, which created the IRS.
Finally, item number five: When did we start jailing teens for having sex? Our child molestation laws are totally messed up. If a 17-year old has sex with a 15-year old, it’s a crime. That’s nonsense.
Having said that, Steve notes that when he was a teen all of the kids either were having sex or wanted to. I understand the wanting to. If you’re past puberty, you want to. It’s a biological fact. Having sex when you’re a teen, however, needs to be avoided. Beyond the obvious problems with STDs and pregnancy, there’s the really bigger problem of cheapening the most intimate of human acts. I have a daughter and I know that at some point she will start having sex. I just don’t want her to become a slut. If you’re having sex when you’re sixteen, you’re a slut.
Whew!
My God! I knew this would be a long response, but I didn’t know it would be this long. Actually, I should have. I could (and very well might) write a book on this subject.
First, however, I have to find a new country to live in. There are no more patriots left here!
My Country t’is of thee…
Sweet land of liberty…
To thee I blog!
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