The Angry American
This one of those mornings where the coffee is good and I really don’t feel like being politically correct or polite about some things that have nagging at me. In fact I’m not going to have any trouble at writing this because I did it my dreams last night…now that’s not the best of signs. So excuse me if I slip now again and use angry words that they used to blip on TV.
I still have my copy of the book “The Ugly American” from my college days, and these days I have had moments when I have revisited it, every time I see a new list of who in the world “hates our guts” and the reasons why. But, I am convinced that someone ought to be writing a new book entitled: “The Angry American”, because we are damn seething angry!
You hear pundits and droning “talking heads” using a lot of words, and filling up hot air time describing the mood of America today: Wary, apprehensive, nervous, pessimistic, cautious, depressed, despaired, impotent, cynical, hopeless, helpless, etc. But when you get right down to it, you can throw all of them away and call it what it is, ANGER; we are damned angry, dangerously so at some turns.
Some of these flap jaws go as far as suggesting that most of America is suffering from depression and we all ought to go on Prozac and a tranquilizer for at least a couple of years. See, now that’s what I mean. They can’t even get this one right, but they like to hear themselves talk, get paid well enough for doing so that they don’t have the same problems as you and me, so they feel good; they get their ego booster shot every time someone sticks a microphone in their face, and if they do have some problems, they make enough that they simple wash them away with a few expensive Martinis, and all is well with the world, except for the people they get paid to bitch about. Now see, I’ve gone and done it. I must be angry.
Anyway, they have it all wrong. We don’t need a national infusion of Prozac in our reservoirs; the symptoms of anger and rage say we are getting close to needing a massive anti-psychotic program.
No question about it; Americans are red faced, butt ugly angry: Conservative Americans, Liberal Americans, Democrats, Republicans, loony left-wingers, rabid right-wingers. Young, old, male, female, heterosexual, homosexual, Christians, Atheists, Afro American, Latinos, Asians, Lord, everybody: They all have one thing in common – they’re pissed.
Any reasonable, sober, rational, non-mind altered substance user/abuser can’t help but be angry when they look at what’s happened and what is happening to them. You need a second mortgage to buy a tank of gas, Americans die in a war that polls say a majority of us do not support, (hell who needs polls on that one), we don’t have confidence in our leaders, (in fact we distrust and despise them), and every piece of legislation that comes out of Congress seems to create more problems than it solves, and then there are those pieces of legislation we have been waiting decades to see the light of day, you know the ones that might really help solve a problem, like universal health care insurance.
I have these consistent visual images that meander through my mind, and all too often I see the American populous standing around with their head firmly planted in the ground like a flock of oblivious Ostriches, or sitting on their asses like those three old stone monkeys, “see no evil”, “hear no evil”, “do no evil”, or walking around with their earphones jammed half way into their brains destroying what little hearing they have, having been exposed to yearly new models of ear drum abuser technology, humming along with: “don’t worry; be happy!”; their heads swaying, jerking about like some bobble head doll. And if you don’t believe me, just watch these folks with their cell phones if you don’t think they have hearing and brain deficits.
What good does it do to yell into a cell phone? Hell; get a megaphone or a couple of tin cans and string and be done with it. But I digress. Now I don’t want to think the worst of our Congresspersons, (sometimes, well often I do), but something is wrong with this health care thing. It’s like they are playing some kind of perverted game, holding out to see if we can be that last nation, let alone the last advanced nation, to provide universal coverage. We send jobs over seas; the homeless on our streets increase daily, (and that includes Vets returning from “honored” service); educational cost sky rocket and we can’t afford to equip the military adequately, and nothing is being done. Before departing this commentary; AMA Lobbyists and pharmaceutical company lobbyists crawl all over Washington like Fire Ants, consuming political leaders with a vengeance.
The whining war of words waged daily contributes nothing to solving problems as the words go in one ear and out the other of both the ”experts” and the public. Expectations for problem resolution are all but nonexistent, and still we pay taxes for, and I sympathize at times with those who ask in earnest: “For What?”
Anger, like all politics is local, and road rage incidents increase daily across the country. Police report serious injuries or death occur far too often from the anger that spills out of such encounters. Alcohol, drug complicated domestic violence, spousal and child abuse just continue to grow, and the morning news drones on like “a night before crime report”. Popular baseball players will sit out games and pay hefty fines for getting into fights with fans. Brawls break out at sporting events; fans aren’t happy if there isn’t a brawl at a hockey game or a crash at a NASCAR event. We want vicarious violence to sooth the anger that gnaws at our guts.
The Vice President of the United States tells a Senator to “fuck off.” Mr. Vice President, I would love to have a few moments of your time to shall we say, express my feelings. Maybe we could go duck hunting on the Potomac. I wouldn’t be concerned because I know your rules, so let’s go shoot a few birds! A senior administration official tries to get even with a critic of the President by leaking the name of his wife – a CIA operative – to the media. I guess he was angry.
That type of nonsense involves a lot more discussion including our “American Values” and the confusing corruption of any sense of consistency brought about by a world where the only constant is change and the content of our moral and ethical fabric has all become a witch’s brew of “Situational Ethics, Moral Relativism, Existentialism, Fundamentalist Christianity and Legalism, all wrapped up in shrieks of “Culture Clash”, that leads to the fact that we have to, or we feel the need to, write tome length books about trying to answer such questions as: “What is right and wrong?” “What is legal and illegal?” “What is Constitutional or Unconstitutional?” “What is Justice and what is unjust?”
Polls, ( there is that word again), say most Americans believe the President lied to gain approval for the war in Iraq and that they also believe the majority of members of Congress are corrupt, don’t serve their constituents, and that lawyers are at the bottom of the Integrity dumpster. The majority in Congress are lawyers! They don’t believe what they read in newspapers or see on the evening news. Most say they turn to the Internet for news, which is ironic since the ‘Net is the source for most incorrect news, biased coverage and urban legends. But then again folks will spend hours watching wrestling or reading the Enquirer. Are we really searching for the truth, or have we reached that movie line: “You can’t handle the truth!” “Don’t worry; Be Happy”!
Now anyone, like me who goes by the blog handle of “Precinct Master” and delights in the electoral process has to be well versed in polling data, but you can’t carry that stuff around in your pocket like some pocket Bible or Koran always at the ready like the Colt sidearm of old. I know leaders who would rather read the latest poll data over coffee as opposed to the news because it “better prepares” them for the day.
Candidly, those of that ilk might just as soon walk out on the street outside Starbucks, wet their finger, stick it up into the morning breeze…and please be careful of your choice of finger…index will be fine…middle will be seen as an expression of anger…and after determined which way the wind is blowing for the day, make their decisions. They will be just as well informed as having read Rasmussen, etc., etc. Reading does not guarantee understanding polling data. This is one step from insanity.
It is just such silliness that prompts me to keep Mark Twain’s quote: “In matters of differences of opinion; our adversaries are simply insane.”…around as my own Linus Blanket. Have these people ever entertained the idea of talking to the average Joe and Sally at Starbucks, the grocery store, wherever, and really LISTEN to them. Listening, considering what others have to say, think and absorbing how they are feeling; now there is a helluva concept!
Congress gridlocks over the simplest pieces of legislation, special interest groups flood the airwaves with angry negative fear invoking advocacy ads that are mostly lies or twist the facts to make a non-existent case, (better know these day as spin, a four letter word like…Ok, Ok…I won’t do that one! Political rhetoric is all-to-often filled with hate and partisan bile. The American public knows they are being fed a diet of pasture droppings and cups of Hemlock and snake venom, yet rather than reject the menu, and everyone associated with it, they opt for choosing the poison of their preference, and merrily on their ways offering it up to anyone who will listen. Usually they are speaking to members of their own choir, (safer that way because people get angry!)
Most couples with young children worry that they won’t have enough money to send their children to college, which may well be true, and that Social Security will be bankrupt long before they retire, which is even more likely to be true, not that we can’t remedy both of these situations, but fighting ill conceived wars, screaming in anger about them, working at political character assassination, plotting, excuse me, planning for reelection, takes up so much time and energy.
This one of those mornings where the coffee is good and I really don’t feel like being politically correct or polite about some things that have nagging at me. In fact I’m not going to have any trouble at writing this because I did it my dreams last night…now that’s not the best of signs. So excuse me if I slip now again and use angry words that they used to blip on TV.
I still have my copy of the book “The Ugly American” from my college days, and these days I have had moments when I have revisited it, every time I see a new list of who in the world “hates our guts” and the reasons why. But, I am convinced that someone ought to be writing a new book entitled: “The Angry American”, because we are damn seething angry!
You hear pundits and droning “talking heads” using a lot of words, and filling up hot air time describing the mood of America today: Wary, apprehensive, nervous, pessimistic, cautious, depressed, despaired, impotent, cynical, hopeless, helpless, etc. But when you get right down to it, you can throw all of them away and call it what it is, ANGER; we are damned angry, dangerously so at some turns.
Some of these flap jaws go as far as suggesting that most of America is suffering from depression and we all ought to go on Prozac and a tranquilizer for at least a couple of years. See, now that’s what I mean. They can’t even get this one right, but they like to hear themselves talk, get paid well enough for doing so that they don’t have the same problems as you and me, so they feel good; they get their ego booster shot every time someone sticks a microphone in their face, and if they do have some problems, they make enough that they simple wash them away with a few expensive Martinis, and all is well with the world, except for the people they get paid to bitch about. Now see, I’ve gone and done it. I must be angry.
Anyway, they have it all wrong. We don’t need a national infusion of Prozac in our reservoirs; the symptoms of anger and rage say we are getting close to needing a massive anti-psychotic program.
No question about it; Americans are red faced, butt ugly angry: Conservative Americans, Liberal Americans, Democrats, Republicans, loony left-wingers, rabid right-wingers. Young, old, male, female, heterosexual, homosexual, Christians, Atheists, Afro American, Latinos, Asians, Lord, everybody: They all have one thing in common – they’re pissed.
Any reasonable, sober, rational, non-mind altered substance user/abuser can’t help but be angry when they look at what’s happened and what is happening to them. You need a second mortgage to buy a tank of gas, Americans die in a war that polls say a majority of us do not support, (hell who needs polls on that one), we don’t have confidence in our leaders, (in fact we distrust and despise them), and every piece of legislation that comes out of Congress seems to create more problems than it solves, and then there are those pieces of legislation we have been waiting decades to see the light of day, you know the ones that might really help solve a problem, like universal health care insurance.
I have these consistent visual images that meander through my mind, and all too often I see the American populous standing around with their head firmly planted in the ground like a flock of oblivious Ostriches, or sitting on their asses like those three old stone monkeys, “see no evil”, “hear no evil”, “do no evil”, or walking around with their earphones jammed half way into their brains destroying what little hearing they have, having been exposed to yearly new models of ear drum abuser technology, humming along with: “don’t worry; be happy!”; their heads swaying, jerking about like some bobble head doll. And if you don’t believe me, just watch these folks with their cell phones if you don’t think they have hearing and brain deficits.
What good does it do to yell into a cell phone? Hell; get a megaphone or a couple of tin cans and string and be done with it. But I digress. Now I don’t want to think the worst of our Congresspersons, (sometimes, well often I do), but something is wrong with this health care thing. It’s like they are playing some kind of perverted game, holding out to see if we can be that last nation, let alone the last advanced nation, to provide universal coverage. We send jobs over seas; the homeless on our streets increase daily, (and that includes Vets returning from “honored” service); educational cost sky rocket and we can’t afford to equip the military adequately, and nothing is being done. Before departing this commentary; AMA Lobbyists and pharmaceutical company lobbyists crawl all over Washington like Fire Ants, consuming political leaders with a vengeance.
The whining war of words waged daily contributes nothing to solving problems as the words go in one ear and out the other of both the ”experts” and the public. Expectations for problem resolution are all but nonexistent, and still we pay taxes for, and I sympathize at times with those who ask in earnest: “For What?”
Anger, like all politics is local, and road rage incidents increase daily across the country. Police report serious injuries or death occur far too often from the anger that spills out of such encounters. Alcohol, drug complicated domestic violence, spousal and child abuse just continue to grow, and the morning news drones on like “a night before crime report”. Popular baseball players will sit out games and pay hefty fines for getting into fights with fans. Brawls break out at sporting events; fans aren’t happy if there isn’t a brawl at a hockey game or a crash at a NASCAR event. We want vicarious violence to sooth the anger that gnaws at our guts.
The Vice President of the United States tells a Senator to “fuck off.” Mr. Vice President, I would love to have a few moments of your time to shall we say, express my feelings. Maybe we could go duck hunting on the Potomac. I wouldn’t be concerned because I know your rules, so let’s go shoot a few birds! A senior administration official tries to get even with a critic of the President by leaking the name of his wife – a CIA operative – to the media. I guess he was angry.
That type of nonsense involves a lot more discussion including our “American Values” and the confusing corruption of any sense of consistency brought about by a world where the only constant is change and the content of our moral and ethical fabric has all become a witch’s brew of “Situational Ethics, Moral Relativism, Existentialism, Fundamentalist Christianity and Legalism, all wrapped up in shrieks of “Culture Clash”, that leads to the fact that we have to, or we feel the need to, write tome length books about trying to answer such questions as: “What is right and wrong?” “What is legal and illegal?” “What is Constitutional or Unconstitutional?” “What is Justice and what is unjust?”
Polls, ( there is that word again), say most Americans believe the President lied to gain approval for the war in Iraq and that they also believe the majority of members of Congress are corrupt, don’t serve their constituents, and that lawyers are at the bottom of the Integrity dumpster. The majority in Congress are lawyers! They don’t believe what they read in newspapers or see on the evening news. Most say they turn to the Internet for news, which is ironic since the ‘Net is the source for most incorrect news, biased coverage and urban legends. But then again folks will spend hours watching wrestling or reading the Enquirer. Are we really searching for the truth, or have we reached that movie line: “You can’t handle the truth!” “Don’t worry; Be Happy”!
Now anyone, like me who goes by the blog handle of “Precinct Master” and delights in the electoral process has to be well versed in polling data, but you can’t carry that stuff around in your pocket like some pocket Bible or Koran always at the ready like the Colt sidearm of old. I know leaders who would rather read the latest poll data over coffee as opposed to the news because it “better prepares” them for the day.
Candidly, those of that ilk might just as soon walk out on the street outside Starbucks, wet their finger, stick it up into the morning breeze…and please be careful of your choice of finger…index will be fine…middle will be seen as an expression of anger…and after determined which way the wind is blowing for the day, make their decisions. They will be just as well informed as having read Rasmussen, etc., etc. Reading does not guarantee understanding polling data. This is one step from insanity.
It is just such silliness that prompts me to keep Mark Twain’s quote: “In matters of differences of opinion; our adversaries are simply insane.”…around as my own Linus Blanket. Have these people ever entertained the idea of talking to the average Joe and Sally at Starbucks, the grocery store, wherever, and really LISTEN to them. Listening, considering what others have to say, think and absorbing how they are feeling; now there is a helluva concept!
Congress gridlocks over the simplest pieces of legislation, special interest groups flood the airwaves with angry negative fear invoking advocacy ads that are mostly lies or twist the facts to make a non-existent case, (better know these day as spin, a four letter word like…Ok, Ok…I won’t do that one! Political rhetoric is all-to-often filled with hate and partisan bile. The American public knows they are being fed a diet of pasture droppings and cups of Hemlock and snake venom, yet rather than reject the menu, and everyone associated with it, they opt for choosing the poison of their preference, and merrily on their ways offering it up to anyone who will listen. Usually they are speaking to members of their own choir, (safer that way because people get angry!)
Most couples with young children worry that they won’t have enough money to send their children to college, which may well be true, and that Social Security will be bankrupt long before they retire, which is even more likely to be true, not that we can’t remedy both of these situations, but fighting ill conceived wars, screaming in anger about them, working at political character assassination, plotting, excuse me, planning for reelection, takes up so much time and energy.
Americans today don’t feel good about their country, about their leaders, about their future, or for that matter, they don’t feel good about anything.
Our leaders have failed us because they have forgotten that their first duty/obligation is to serve the country, not their party or their personal political agendas. Too many Americans have forgotten that as well, choosing to blindly support a specific political party or philosophical agenda without thinking of the effect such support might have on their country, their way of life or their future. You know what that is all about; Americans have decided that both sides of the aisle are equally noxious and that every so often, like putting on clean under wear, they vote to give the other side a chance to prove them wrong, and as we have seen, the new players talk a lot but the rush to the trough of power, pilfer, pork, profit and privilege is unmistakable.
Both sides hypocritically condemn actions of their opponents while condoning the same actions by members of their own party or philosophical group. Both sides strike out angrily when criticized but then don’t hesitate to level the same hyperbole towards the other side when it suits their purposes. And then, the voters change the under wear, and what happens, we Democrats just can’t wait to air out dirty bed linen. Who is going to get what job? Who should be cast out of party leadership after doing an historic job? Who wants to be President in 2008…everybody? Who is going to be whose sock puppet?
Yes, we’re angry, but the anger will only get worse as long as partisanship controls our lives, drives our decisions and defines our government. We cannot, and will not, control our anger until we stop thinking confrontationally as Democrats or Republicans, conservatives or liberals, right or left and start working together as Americans. Having said that, things are unfortunately in such a mess, that legally, morally, ethically, constitutionally we must Impeach Bush and Cheney. That will be confrontational! You can argue with me until you are blue with anger in your face, but it is a matter of Right and Wrong!
Angry people always look for someone to blame for the anger. Democrats blame Republicans. Republicans blame Democrats. Independents blame both. But, in a democratic republic, the ultimate responsibility falls on we the people. In the end, the only people who can change things are you, me and the rest of the angry masses, and it is up to us to insure the integrity and continuation of our Democracy. It is up to us to see to it that our rights are not eroded or corroded, and that is a fact! It is our duty; it is our responsibility, so when two different POLLING GROUPS called yesterday inquiring about Impeachment, I cradled my phone, called up my most complete Bill of Particulars on this machine, and I unloaded every domestic criminal act of Bush and his subordinates, and every violation of the Geneva Conventions that constitutes War Crimes. I did my duty to the point where one pollster stopped me and asked if he could record the entirety on my response. Dutifully I complied with the request, because it was RIGHT to do so!
First, we all have to accept the blame for what’s happened to this country. Then we have to work together to resolve our anger and get to the more important job of fixing what’s wrong. So I guess what I am suggesting by way of resolving our anger is that we have to experience and get by the vitriol of a dual Impeachment and then maybe we can move on. Actually, if the Congress can simply view that act as a matter of process and continue working on legislative matters, you would be surprised how much could be accomplished while Impeachment proceedings move forward. It is not a necessary, given automatic that every function of the US government comes to a stand still during investigations and subsequent Impeachment. That assumption is based upon a rather ritualistic approach to such matters and the instinct to preach on TV as often as possible. What garbage!
Don’t get mad. Don’t get even. Instead, let’s get together and get results. I want to see our country healthy again. I want to see the rule of law in place. I do not want to hear excuses of why we cannot prosecute/impeach criminals. I don’t want to hear any discussion of moral relativism or situational ethics. I want to hear Constitutional and Unconstitutional. I want to hear Moral and Immoral. I want to hear RIGHT and Wrong. I want to hear JUSTICE and service to the American people!
I invite your comments. I will LISTEN! Ed.
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