I read too much. I think too much. I gather way too much information and sit around piecing it together and then bitching about why this country and why this world is so fucked up. However, I have to to actually DO anything about it. I’m certainly not an elitist nor am I the guy that wants everything to be ‘how it was’. The past isn’t coming back, ever, so anyone who even thinks going back to the ‘way things were’ needs to seriously consider how things used to be. Remember when only white males could vote? I don’t (I wasn’t alive) but I’ve read about it in various places. There are plenty of people in this country that would love to go back to those days but many more that know that it will never happen and many more that know it’s not for the benefit of anyone. Such are many of the issues that face the world today to keep our minds occupied (the gay civil rights movement comes to mind). But for now, I must digress…
The reason that I believe that I am a part of the current problem in America is that I have the ability (in both a cognitive and physical level) to do a small part to help restore how the rest of the world not only views us but that they might actually want to interact with us without bitching about all of the evil that we’re supposedly doing. And we are, in a sense, evil. Much of what we do on a worldwide scale is for our own personal gain, no matter how things are spun in the media and how world endeavors are sold to us. Our military has been so romanticized that speaking out against the politics behind why we are in certain world situations can quickly lead to that opinion being eschewed to ‘Not supporting the troops’. I still have no idea what ‘Support Our Troops’ means. If it means that we should be thankful for the people that volunteer to go to hell on earth so that I can sit in my apartment looking out at the beautiful city of Chicago feeling a sense that I’m most likely not going to be disturbed by the building next to mine being blown up while I watch the Jaguars play the Titans, then hell yea, I support those people. However, if that means that I need to support the decisions made by our politicians that put these men and women in a position that could lead to them not coming home to their family and friends, then no I do not. All too often I talk to people that cannot separate these two things. We all know someone who has in one way or another been effected by both current and past wars. If some of the fallen may have been able to stay home and get an education and benefit their family in a more positive way than by dying so that I can have a bunch of shit that I really don’t need, I’d rather make small sacrifices so that another mother doesn’t have to live with her son being killed so that another can have a better Escalade.
But now I’m getting preachy and frankly could use a smoke… Also, I have other things I need to get done after that so I’ll just say more to come…..
