Many of you have noticed that I either post on something I am doing, or something the world is doing. It is time for one about what the world is doing. Firstly, I need you to read this editorial, I didn't know what the laws were about putting a whole article on a blog was so you will have to go to the link yourself.
OK, now I trust you have read it (or none of this will make sense).
I watched the inauguration live on the BBC. The amount of pageantry involved was crazy to me. I realized that this was the first inauguration I have watched because I didn't care about Bush and I was too young to care about Clinton. It was crazy the amount of commentary there was in the background. It was similar to watching a football game where there can't be one minute of dead air. The commentators even commented during the classical music section, which really made me mad because it was all about Obama being black.
Now, during Obama's acceptance speech in November, I was moved to tears...I was not so with his inauguration speech. Don't know why, just wasn't. I was bored quite frankly. But obviously by all the camera panning during the speech, I was out numbered by all the inspired millions, all who Danny Westneat is saying want to give back.
Why all of a sudden do people want to give back? Why couldn't they give back before? There were tons of moments during Bush's presidency (or the other 6 presidents, I think since JFK) that people could have given back but didn't, or did for that short moment in time and then just stopped...anyone remember Katrina? I hate that people don't find the link between great programs and more taxes. Programs need taxes and usually the good ones require the highest. Do you know how much it is going to cost to have universal health care? I pay 20% of my paycheck just for the NHS here.
I don't understand the stimulus package stuff. Did it work last year? Sure it was nice to get a check from the government for once, but I didn't spend it in a store. Why can't the government just make things a little cheaper? Cost of living a little lower?
I might sound a little stupid because I have no idea what I am talking about. I don't understand politics and my mind wanders when I read or watch the news (or even when I am writing one of my silly blogs), but here is the thing (and I am sure it is the thing that will get me into trouble and show that I don't know what I am talking about)...
"I talked to dozens who were there and came away with exactly the opposite. They wanted to know what they can do. Not what you or the government can do for them, but what they can do for their country.
It's a 50-year-old JFK cliché, hip again. We are a self-absorbed Me-Nation. But maybe a crisis is bringing about ... change."
It's a 50-year-old JFK cliché, hip again. We are a self-absorbed Me-Nation. But maybe a crisis is bringing about ... change."
Were we a "Me-Nation" before JFK? Given, the WWII Generation had the Baby-Boom Generation who sparked all of this me-first hog wash that has trickled down to the explosion of all self absorbed, "get off your ass," "me first" Generation X and Y. I have this deep seeded need to know how Generation X and Y got to be the selfish bastards we are. And this is why...
I walk in the desert during the Summer recording historical artifacts from people who went through tremendous hardships to find a better life. They had nothing and recycled everything and they didn't give up, for if they had, the West Coast wouldn't have been populated.
So this was around 1870, between then and 1930 there were a couple of wars and of course WWI. In 1930 there was the Stock Market Crash and the Great Depression. Once again people had to live without and pull together. Then there was WWII, and as soon as America got bombed, we got busy. People actually signed up to go to war and gave their time to serve their country in some way.
But then, I don't get what happened...it must have been the Korea and Vietnam Wars that sent the US into a me, me, me frenzy. Why did these wars create such a self absorbed society...I mean come on, the hippies were not the let's help everyone kind of people that they thought they were and they all turned into the suburban SUV driving yuppies (that's right, don't forget the yuppies).
Is it that we haven't seen what Change really is for so long, that we don't believe it exists? When JFK was president, people believed in change...and then he was shot. When Martin Luther King was preaching tolerance in face of great diversity, he was shot. When kids were protesting against the Vietnam war and segregation in schools...they were shot or attacked. And we saw this all on TV...we SAW it. With our own eyes. How can you believe in change when all you see is the hopes and progress being CRUSHED right before your eyes?
Do you know that a man hasn't been on the moon since 1972?
So, here we go again, a chance for change, (and I am so tired of that word the only word I hate more is "green,") and the most common thing I hear after someone says "hey it's great that Obama is president," is "I hope he doesn't get assassinated." I am glad that everyone feels they need to do something...but I hope that this time they do and that I do for that matter (see, I am just as much a part of the problem as everyone else...thinking that the mysterious "they" are going to do it), and the next time our hopes get CRUSHED, because they will...that we all just shrug, give the person next to us a little hug and carry on.
So tell me...What are you going to do for the country?
3 comments:
Very interesting Jess. I liked the editorial too. I am going to grow my own veggies and support local businesses as much as possible. I don't want to go shopping to help the economy I didn't last year when I got my stimulus check. I have to agree that I am also tired of hearing people say they hope Obama doesn't get assinated. But I do have hope that he can change the world we are living in.
D says:
I love Obama. He is intelligent, literate, charismatic and well spoken. Many of our worldviews align. I voted for him, and I would have worn his button or t-shirt during the election were I not so opposed to using my body as free advertising space. He is a politician that I would like to have a beer with. However, he is a politician. His main agenda is to be re-elected. Tax cuts increase approval ratings.
During his campaign, Obama promised to reach across the aisle to his republican counterparts to solve the economic crisis. His solution to this is to offer tax cuts. The current republican opposition to his economic stimulus package is that the cuts are not deep enough.
The logic of spending more money on credit to dig yourself out of a hole never made sense to me. Tax cuts are like gambling. When I walk into a store with $100, I know I will walk out with a bag of groceries or a new outfit. Sure, you could win $1000 at a casino with it, but the odds are against you. You are more likely to walk away with empty pockets and a sour stomach due to the watered down drinks. The bailouts and stimulus packages of 2008 bought the American public corporate retreats, redecorated executive offices and millions of dollars of unaccounted for money. My stomach is feeling pretty sour about that.
With infrastructure programs, if you pay for a bridge you will get a bridge. Of course, it will come in over budget. The unscrupulous contractor will charge $1000 per rivet, and there will be an archaeological site precisely where one of the main support structures must be placed. At least the contractor’s wife will be happy that they finally got the Brazilian cherry floors and the granite countertops they so desperately needed. The archaeologist will finally be able to pay off her student loans and buy that pair of running shoes (made in China) that she so desperately needed.
Hope and expectations are two different things. I still have hope that Obama will lead us into a new era of responsible and honest spending both on Main Street and on Wall Street. However, my expectations that this will actually occur are pretty low.
So, what am I doing to save the economy? Exactly what they don’t want me to do. I am living responsibly. I am not spending money I don’t have. My credit card balance is zero. With my tax cut, I’ll pay off my student loans, and I probably will buy a new pair of running shoes (does any brand even make running shoes in America?).
From the Grandparents (I love it when they comment):
How thinking you are. Many of your thoughts are the same as mine. Maybe the country is in the position that it is because too many of us don't express our feelings and make them known to the people who can do something about our thinking. We do appreciate your willingness to express your thoughts and look forward for them.
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