I am having a Monty Python moment – when he says, “Now, for something entirely different.” At this point in my life I can allow myself to take more risks. Even if I fall on my face, at least I have done something outside of my usual comfort zone. This is admittedly the most political blog I have ever written. I have been thinking about these things for quite awhile. Today my inner voice said, “Do it now. Write about something different – not just local politics, the Coyotes or the pond.” And so I have.
As I watch events unfold in our country concern about its future begs to be voiced. My husband and I are both retired. We are decidedly middle class and our retirement income is just enough. We were children of the 40s and 50s when America was kinder and gentler and there was still a whiff of innocence in the air we breathed. Our front doors were never locked, we played outside without fear and a sense of patriotism was a virtue. Our parents worked hard so that we had opportunities for a better life, especially economically, than they had. There was a sense of belief, hope and optimism. All things were possible if one worked for it.
When the Great Recession of 2007-08 descended upon this nation it was as if we were traveling on a road where the fog laid thick and dank. Nothing was visible beyond the car’s headlights. Where were the road’s lane lines or markers to orient us? Was it possible to drift into oncoming traffic? All reference points were masked by the fog’s pervasiveness. It created a sense of unease and fear about the future.
As the fog recedes ever so slowly and we begin to leave it behind, large signs, billboards, become visible along the roadway. The first one says will we ever know what happened in Benghazi? Another reminds us of the federal investigations of reporters and the conspiracy charge levied against reporter James Rosen (eventually dropped). Yet another billboard depicts the Internal Revenue Service’s biased actions in determining 501-C4 status for some non-profit groups while another reveals the National Security Administration’s collection of data (some, it turns out, deliberate and unauthorized) on American citizens. The last two billboards show the government’s grant of a one year exemption for businesses from the new Healthcare legislation and a total exemption of Congressional men and women and their staffs from the requirements of this new law.
These billboards are troublesome because they signify the erosion of our Constitution by the very people charged with its defense. The President continues to erode its meaning through Executive Orders while Congress is ineffectual in passing even the simplest of legislation. The stewards of our individual right to privacy with a wringing of hands and a gnashing of teeth eagerly cede bits and pieces of our foundational values in the name of security and safety.
The fog may have lifted but what happened while we were blinded by its effects? No longer do parents believe they will pass on greater opportunities to their children. Belief, hope and optimism have been replaced by divisiveness and the partisan politicization of every important issue before us. Working hard has been replaced by who you know and what can you do for me. Our government is driving a train loaded with the cargo of political correctness and erosion of the very values we held dear for centuries.
Our familiar societal reference points have disappeared and fear and unease about the future persists not as an aberration of a difficult time in our history but as the norm. Many trust in God…but what about the federal government?
©Joyce Clark, 2013
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Oh Joyce, this sounds like I wrote it. Everything you said I have mulled over myself. I have many friends, both personal and facebook, who list things every day that troubles me concerning the Federal government and all in charge. Being a Libra, I always try to see if the posts are fair and accurate but also something that anyone can do anything about. I grew up thinking that fairness would always prevail in one way or another (like you in the 40’s and 50’s) but that assumption was wiped away years ago. Working for any government (and private business probably also) makes you realize that unless people band together to stop the wrongs and make sure that all government (and businesses too) are honoring the morals and ethics that they should, nothing will change. I am one of the worse because I worry about issues but I am not a person to take charge. That is what we need at this point. You listed many events that everyone knows were political and personal wrongdoings, but there were so many more that reeked of wrongdoing besides. What can we do? We definitely need leaders because a troop of worried people need some guides. I hope you got everyone thinking on this one. We are losing time by watching over and over these horrible things happening. And I know there are some that won’t agree that there is anything wrong. But it will be too late if someone doesn’t get some action going. Thanks for this post. By the way, I truly think you could be one of those leaders we need! Okay, stop shaking your head and think about it.
Dayna and Joyce; I agree 100% with both of you, but what can anyone do?
I remember when B O became prez. I was very upset; I could not trust him. Someone said America will be destroyed from with in. He is doing it.
We all complain in disbelief at all the things he does and no one does anything to stop him.
How is president Obama destroying America? Is it the healthcare act that is actually lowering costs? All of the government spying that is getting so much media attention started under president Bush when the Patriot Act was signed into law. We’ve known all along that they were collecting phone records and what not.
I think the older people get, the more they tend to romanticize past decades. People forget that the 40’s and 50’s weren’t a great time for many people in our society.
Can I say that I agree with all of you? I don’t think all of the responsibility rests squarely on the shoulders of the President. Congress has been ineffective for sometime now, and is even divided within their own party. Sure the government has been listening in, and by the previous administration too. My thought to that is, why worry if you are not doing anything wrong? It’s just something that we can talk about to blame someone else. Let’s call it deflection.
I grew up a child of the 60s and early 70s, and had a lot of the same experiences as all of you, just in a different decade. I had a middle-class white collar family, my father worked hard, my mother stayed at home to raise her kids. We kept our doors locked, but we weren’t concerned about riding our bikes away from the sight of our house, and we could even walk about a mile to school by ourselves. I am sure our parents had the same thoughts when they became adults, how much simpler things were, how much harder times were and they made it. Their parents said the same things.
What has really changed the world is what we have access too, and the advent of technology. In the 60s we were watching the Vietnam war unfold before our eyes… it was the first time war was seen within hours of when it happened. Now, we see it unfold as it’s happening. With the invention of the Internet, everything changed. We received our information rapidly/immediately. Newspapers and magazines are becoming extinct, and news on TV is having to reinvent itself too. News networks like CNN, MSNBC, FOX news are now telling people what to think, because obviously we can think for ourselves. Then came a beast called Twitter, where everyone knows about everything within seconds, and in some cases before it happens (Jackie Chan has died many times over Twitter).
In the 1980s, when MTV began broadcasting, what was the first video to air? “Video Killed the Radio Star”. Seems appropriate that as we move further along into this new millennium that we are killing ourselves with technology and the speed at which we want information delivered to us. The new generation, I’ll call Generation ADD or Generation ADHD, is doomed, and it’s everyone’s fault for bringing us there so rapidly.
Hear! Hear!
Bill, great post! You made many good points. I’m part of gen Y so obviously there were certain aspects of my childhood that differed from many others on here; technology being the most prevalent one. But I can’t imagine that my childhood was THAT much different than previous generations.
Yes, children grow up a little faster today; mostly because technology exposes us to an outside world that past generations didn’t have access to, but I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. Even with all of the technology I grew up with, I think I had a pretty normal American upbringing.
I grew up in west Glendale with three other brothers. I never felt unsafe in my neighborhood. I walked to Discovery elementary for many years before heading over to Independence, which I walked home from for the first couple of years. I was always out playing basketball with my youngest brother & friends in my driveway or at Discovery park when whether permitted, or I needed a break from my video games. I mean, does this sound odd to anyone?
I think the older we get the more disconnected we become to younger and newer generations. We forget that we WERE those young kids that we can’t relate to.
There are a lot of things you have all said that I understand and agree with, and no one is trying to put any other generation down. Each generation has its own problems and good aspects to deal with. My kids also, Jason, were born in Glendale in the early 60’s and had a safe and fulfilling childhood (at least I think they did). They went to Harold W. Smith grade school and Glendale High School. They both worked from their teens on and both went on to college, getting their Bachelors and Master degrees. This was not from any help from my husband and I (If we could have, we would have), but on their own initiative with working, grants, and loans, which they had to pay back themselves. Technology has come for grandchildren and great-grandchildren now that I never dreamed would. But this is only our background and personal structure. Now we have allowed a federal government tell us we can’t pray when that is how our country was founded, from the Pilgrims to the Protestants and Catholics, and all other religions. There have always been atheists, but not always destructive atheists. It is funny, because so many atheists that I knew when I grew up, when it was their time to go to the hereafter found a need to make things right with God. Not all of them, but most of them. With all the technology we do keep in touch better, but it also has brought a lot of negativity into lives and fear of personal hacking. There are also good Muslims, who only want to live their life with their beliefs. This is not what we fear and are talking about. Any religion that promotes killing and maiming and torturing is not a religion. That is a cult. And we are allowing a lot of this into our wonderful safe beautiful country America. The answer has always been to vote but even this aspect has been tampered with in many instances. You mentioned Obamacare is good for you. Well, actually it has been horrible for my husband and I who worked all our lives just to be able to enjoy the “golden years.” That has all been taken away with financial and medical problems. The bulk of Obamacare has not even been implemented yet and then we shall see what works and what doesn’t. We all think something is working good until it touches us personally with a negative force and that is when we ask what the heck happened here. Didn’t mean to go on and on here but these were just some of the issues (just my personal concerns) that I worry about. We just need some good leaders at this point to stick to the truth, the morals, and the ethics that our country was founded on. Republic or Democrat or Independent, it really doesn’t matter at this point.