Monday, July 28, 2014

Ghosts and Goblins of The Past. Things That Go 'Bump' in the Night

    OK, I am going to be called a racist because I have some problems with our current Administration. I guess I never was able to get over the teachings of my Kennedy Liberal mother who implored upon my upbringing to question everything and everybody. Guilty as charged. But look on the bright side. I am 51 as of this October and already past the 'Life Values Curve' of the Cass Sunstein model lodged into Obamacare so if I become catastrophically ill or injured, no medical attention will be paid to me and I will fade like a newspaper left in a sunny window.
    However, there IS an advantage to my growing old age. I no longer give two craps about what people think ( in general or, of me). I can say what I think and feel and only old codgers like me will listen. I KNOW what I am talking about because I have read about it 14,000 times and lived through it several times over as well. I have been places, seen and done things that will curl your toenails so anything any one says in rebuttal better have their shit together.
    This latest chapter in my life's book has unfolded to where I am now covering elections, events, protests, writing articles, researching, engaged in self study of American History and its exceptional place in our evolution as a species. I have created out of thin air, my own media network which has grown beyond anything I even imagined. Thus; requiring me to write, research, read, create, expand and develop more of my intellect in order to feed this monster I have created.
    So, sit down. Shut up and listen to what this old man has to say!... And pull you damn pants up!

    First of all. You live in the most amazing place ever created in the entire history of civilization. My grandmother lived through one of the most incredible centuries in all centuries combined. The 20th. She watched from her birth in 1898 to the first flight of those two kooks who built bikes for a living. Every one said they were nuts until one morning at a beach on the Carolina sea shore. She kissed goodbye friends and relatives in 1917 and 1942 to go and fight for freedom. None of them came back except her husband (my grandfather) who suffered years later from gas attacks and 'Shell Shock'..   Yes, that was the term and that should remain the term!
    She made beer and whiskey in a still in the kitchen and sold it during Prohibition.. Grandma was a Dealer!.. She never took a drink  though... Ever.
    She marveled at a new washing machine and a crazy idea known as a refrigerator. Canned food scared her and GOD FORBID you dare leave a condiment jar uncovered! She never learned to drive and even as I drove her around in my own modern safety equipped vehicle she elected to sit in the back and would always tell me to "..Slow down!" Once television came on the scene she was amazed.. WOW! Three channels in black and white that was constantly going , ".. on the blink.." as she would say.
    Until one night in 1969 when she watched Neil and Buzz goof off on the moon. ' Youd 'ave thought they 'ave more sense than that!". She said in her Lancashire English brogue.
    She watched Vietnam and begged my father to hide my older brothers from the draft. She had NOTHING  good to say about the Soviets yet, even she, would tell the next person to, "let the man speak!"
    She worked her entire life until she retired at 75. Then, she decided to work some more because that was who she was.
    She voted for Reagan, and Bush. She rejoiced as The Wall as hammered down. She cried and remarked during Bosnia; " ..if the Russians were still there? They'd 'ave put an' en' to this malarkey!"
    She died at 98 and was spared the horror of 9/11. She would have been so ashamed of America to have allowed this. She would be horrified to see America as she is today.

    You see, even though my grandmother was very Liberal, she knew who to choose as a leader. She EXPERIENCED leaders in her time and could tell when some one was blowing smoke up her dress.
    I was raised this way... I grew up in that Democrat household but was constantly exposed to questions and my elders yelling at the TV and talking politics at the dinner table. Essentially we lived as free Americans and God help the poor SOB who told us otherwise.

    So, do not tell me what I am because I stand up and say 'wait a second..'. This is something engrained into my DNA and my children have it as well. If we are to accept the idea (invented) that being gay is from birth then do not denigrate me for my very American political beliefs.. I was born this way! I was raised this way! It is in (quite literally) my DNA... If I can take a moment here: My parents played instruments, grandparents, great-grandparents, my bothers; thus, I played in bands as well.. DNA!
    My children question all the time and are constantly put under the microscope by teachers, social workers and the police.. Is this the America we want? I hope my children fight to their last dying breath for what is given to them by God and enshrined in our Constitution. Given the current state of affairs with our family, I do not worry.
    Neither my parents or grandparents had to worry about a government agent knocking on the door because their child spoke out in class or defended a friend in a fight.. That is my cross to bear because of the society we have created for ourselves.

    But this is where we are at today. So, excuse me if I have a problem with where we are. Things tend to 'bump' now from normalcy of what we should be to being imposed upon us now. The ghosts of our past are nudging us into action. It des not matter if you were raised in a staunch Republican household or in my, Liberal Democrat household. Our ancestors are calling to us from their graves to action. You may 'hold' a party line but we are all bound by the principles of our Republic and what that means to our posterity.

....And That Is The Diatribe....
   

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