Posts Tagged ‘America’
Dear America
Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Our country looks about as smart as a box of rocks right now. Has for the last umpteen years, really. Violations happen. Feathers get ruffled. Pearls clutched. Consequences unrealized. Guidelines get crossed. Rule of law, ignored. People march. Protestors and Federal Agents clash. Media flounders. President posts outrageous lies and intimidating threats. Ethics rules become a joke. Cash grabs abound. Allied countries dissed.
Oh, look! Something shiny over there. Ignore what the other hand is doing.
Just wait until the next election. That’ll show ‘em. Yeah, right.
People used to rage at the thought of pedophilia. Human trafficking was a most despicable act. Now, the most exposed ring of human trafficking pedophiles ever has been uncovered, and one of the key perpetrators gets off scot-free and is allowed to hold the highest office in the nation. Ignore the survivors.
Here’s an idea. When there is a civil war to end slavery, don’t let all the defenders of slavery go free to continue their inhumane treatment of others. And when a sitting President orchestrates an insurrection in an attempt to stop the counting of electoral college votes, formalizing the victory of his opponent, HOLD HIM ACCOUNTABLE.
Or, I suppose we could go through a laborious histrionics of official hearings and feigned media concern, wave our arms, and pull a giant dose of nothing out of a hat, subsequently letting the malfeasance continue at an ever-increasing rate.
How ridiculous do we appear to the rest of the world? At least the massive number of American citizens are armed with lethal weapons to defend themselves from the threat of the type of tyranny that is playing out right before the world’s eyes.
What’ll it be? An election or an armed resistance?
You know, I think there is a new movie out on Netflix, and if we place our sports bets correctly on one of the multitude of online betting sites that have achieved mainstream acceptance, we could come up with enough money to DoorDash some crappy fast food.
America, we’ll be just fine. Look how many Olympic medals the USSR was able to win under its oppressive All-Union Supreme Soviet state authority. Our new idiot leader will surely allow our professional (men’s) sports leagues to endure, especially since getting people to bet is easier than convincing them to pay a tax.
Dear America, we’ve made this bed, either by directly acting to make it happen or failing to uphold the ideals put in place to prevent it. Do not be surprised when (even more) bullets finally start to fly, or the next fair election never quite materializes. It’s all part of a long game plan that we’ve discounted at our own peril.
If you have the strength to love the inner souls of those who seek to terrorize and oppress, there is no better time to set your beams on high.
[big sigh]
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Music Memory
As a latter-baby-boom fan of record albums, I have a number of milestone music memories from my coming-of-age years moving between middle school to high school in the 1970s. Admittedly, having four older siblings as in-home influencers contributed greatly to my exposure to music that was older than my years. The burgeoning rock scene of the Woodstock era was a little beyond my 10-year-old self, but the allure of the music was well-established by the time I reached my mid-teens.
Cyndie and I were recently gifted with access to Apple Music by our kids. The welcome message from Apple points out my song collection is now 60-million strong. This is a gift the kids will have a very difficult time surpassing in the future. Maybe a fiber-optic line of unlimited data access to our home in the rural countryside could top this, but that’s pretty far beyond the ability of individuals to achieve.
As it is, we are able to sip new downloads through a tiny straw on our current data plan.
However, my connection at work offers an alternate avenue for adding songs to the library on my phone. Yesterday, I downloaded the America album, “Holiday.” That record was released on my 15th birthday at a time when my interest in their acoustic guitar sounds and vocal harmonies was very strong.
It was to be my time. New music that was current to my adolescence. However, reality didn’t quite match my expectations. The band was evolving and I was disappointed.
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I liked the way they looked on their first album. I am embarrassingly influenced by album cover art. (Duly noting the incredible insensitivity of the somber indigenous tribesmen behind the gleeful white trio under the dual-meaning “America.”) The old-timey photo on “Holiday” didn’t appeal to me one bit.
The new album had less strumming acoustic guitars and more theatrical clarinet.
I tried to like “Holiday.” There were a couple of songs that wowed me, but the majority didn’t, despite listening to it over and over again. When I moved from LPs to CDs, “Holiday” didn’t get replaced. I haven’t heard most of these songs in 40-some years. Now, with the convenience of digital access, I get to revisit my youth.
Listening to the album again triggered a lot of memories. Riding in the back of a station wagon packed with teens and someone turning up the radio for the song, “Tin Man” and shooshing everyone because “John’s song” was on.
But, I wanted “Horse with No Name” and “Riverside” not “Sister Golden Hair” and “Muskrat Love.”
Luckily, at the time, I also had “461 Ocean Boulevard,” the return of Eric Clapton to recording after recovering from a 3-year addiction to heroin.
I’m looking forward to mining more lost gems and their associated memories of my youth among the other 60-million songs that hopefully include a wide variety from the 70s.
Thank you, Elysa and Julian! This was a brilliant choice for a gift for us both.
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Relative Something 