It is hard to get one's mind around this downfall of a great nation. Never perfect the United States to be sure, but a country once feared and respected. We are still feared to some extent but never now respected. How could it be otherwise. Fools reign in our Capital city and have for many many years. There are always fools to be suffered of course, but what what we have now is just a bit hard to stomach. It is a bit hard to fathom that in the halls once occupied by John C Calhoun and Stephen Douglas are now the domain of a Harry Reid and Dick Durbin. There has not been a president worthy of this people since Reagan or perhaps even Ike. Or perhaps I am wrong on that. I guess we have gotten exactly the type of leadership that we deserve. Successive administrations that the people don't trust, hold in contempt, and fear. In my humble opinion there is none worse than the current. Yes, I guess we have gotten just what we deserve. We have succumbed to allowing our nation to be influenced by the lowest common denominator. Being led by such is nothing more than natural progression.
How can it be otherwise when a substantial number of our population have no idea where this country came from; what it stands for? These people only know what they are taught and often as not they are taught that this country was founded by those whose main interest was to subjugate others.
They know nothing of the real reasons for the Emancipation Proclamation (if they even know of it at all) and if they know anything of Lincoln, all they can tell you is he freed the slaves and was shot for it. It would be interesting to show them, in historical writings, that Lincoln, while believing slavery to be a wrong, was only interested in keeping slavery contained and cared very little if black men were held in bondage in the area that already had the "peculiar institution" in place. It is a fact of business that Lincoln noted that to preserve the Union and win the war, he would be more than happy to leave all slaves in bondage or free some and leave others in their place. He was also an advocate of "resettlement" of the freedmen to some area of Central or South America. These people know nothing of Lincoln.
What do the people know of the Confederacy? They know that the flag is "offensive" to them. They know that Southerners were slaveholders. That's all. Nothing more. They do not know that most Southerners were small farmers and not slave owners, and more often than not, did not especially like or trust the "planter class." They do not know that most Southerners fought the Union because they felt invaded and under threat of subjugation themselves. It is ironic how large numbers of people in this country are beginning to feel the same.
What do people know of the sacrifices of the WWII? All that some know now is that we are the only country to use the atomic bomb and are therefore somehow a guilty nation. They know nothing of our attempt at isolation. They know nothing of an expansionist Asian empire that attacked our country on Dec 7, 1941 in order to neutralize the only force capable of stopping their plans of making millions slaves to their Imperial regime. They know nothing of helping to stop the Nazi military machine from enslaving millions on the other side of the world. They know or care nothing about the phenomenon that was the Holocaust. Nothing.
What do the people know of the Cold War? They know nothing of the people's of Hungary who bravely stood up to Soviet tanks and died in the vain attempt to keep their freedom. They know nothing of people who risked, and often lost, their lives to make it to the West. Nothing. They know nothing of the fall of the Berlin Wall which freed millions of Germans from Socialist bondage. They know nothing the fall of the Soviet puppet in Poland. Nothing. They certainly do not know that without American pressure on the Soviet Union these people would still be in bondage. The know not that a total commitment to Socialism leads people to little more than serfdom.
What do people know of the attack on this country on Sept 11, 2001? They know that some Muslims flew some planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Some might even know that on the fourth plane brave people fought and died keeping the Mohammedan enemy from fulfilling their plans on that final flight. Now a large percentage of the population believes somehow that a succesful military attack (which it was) on our own soil, (which incidentally killed more people than Pearl Harbor), was somehow our fault. That one is certainly hard to swallow. There is video of people jumping from the flames to certain death to avoid a more painful death, and their families (and all of us) have to suffer fools who blame the attacks on that day on our country.
What do people know of freedom? The young are already lost. They have their nifty devices, music, reality television and designer drugs and are oblivious to the fact that they we are no longer a free people. It would be useless to even try to discuss the freedoms that people in this country enjoyed even as late as the 1970's. They wouldn't even understand that one could actually have a beer at 18, buy cigarettes, miss class without fear of arrest, etc. etc. There are those however that do understand what is being lost daily in this country and are on guard. They are the minority.
Discussion along these line could go on all night. I'm sure you get my point here. I would like to leave you with a warning of sorts. Think what you will of it and me, but I know a bit of history and know that our country is no more immune to something unspeakable any more than it was in the 1860's.
The story of the fall of our country will be a rather long and drawn out affair likely. It won't be without fire and bloody civil strife. The truism of history having a way of repeating itself is accurate. I don't think we will see a civil war really begin in earnest in the lifetime of those of us over 50, but a reckoning may be on the horizon. Extreme view? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Time will tell.
Please enjoy an old tune by The Band. I find it oddly appropriate.
No comments:
Post a Comment