Okay, I get it. The people in power, the ones ruling from the upper roost that used to be known as the People’s House, are all about total control- over me, over you, over every last one of us. If you disagree then you are either blind, ignorant or just a fool. Maybe all three. Sorry, had to say it.

I do get it. They continue to pass laws and, worse yet, non-laws that completely define how we are all to act, what we are to do, and more and more just about every little facet of our shrinking existence. Our free and unencumbered existence that is. I suppose that, in the end, we will still be allowed to exist to the extent that we are of some usefulness to the State.

Paranoid? Over-reacting? Maybe not. Study your history but do it in the safety of a darkened corner of your basement lest they find out you are going around what they feed you on TV, or, often, worse, at school. Study the history if you dare. And then come back and see if you think I am still so wrong.

So I do get it, and I see it, and I feel that there is little I can do to affect it, to alter its course.

And it seems that they are at least true to their word. They said, those people in power, that this class of rulers, the ones I’m sure that they plan on being the last class, would be all about total transparency and they are indeed being true to their word. I know. I can see right through them and their actions. And if you knew your history and removed your bias you might as well.

So I guess it’s unfair to get mad at them, to fault them for doing all that they had said they would do- if, that is, you had really listened when they said it. They said it. It’s still all there in the public record. And the fact that they just sometimes manage to say something that seems a bit different today? Well, that is your fault didn’t you know? They are fair, they are honest. And, true to their word, they are as transparent as hell.

So I do get it, and I guess I can’t really be mad at them for all that.

No, what really gets me is the folks, the ones who are supposed to be on “our side”, who continue to point all of this out with either and “I told you so” or “this is really bad” suffix to their statements and then do what, to me is the worst thing imaginable- they laugh. As if it’s a joke. As if it’s funny. As if it is, well, true, but still something to be made light of and passed off as just another news item that they can comment on and profit from…with a laugh.

I’m not laughing and you really shouldn’t be so, please God in Heaven, just stop laughing.

Stop laughing. It isn’t funny.

Perhaps a bit premature but it has gotten very cold out and seems as if it is already Winter.  The winter of our discontent.

What in the good Lord’s name has happened to this country?  What in His still good name is still happening?  I guess that, being Americans, we always believe that “it just can’t happen, not here, not to us.”  Nope- we are Americans and have survived it all so we can certainly survive the worst threat yet to confront us- and that is us.

I believe that this was all seen long ago.  I believe that those slave-holding, out-of-date, boring old white guys might just have had it right all along.  Seems they tried to do a lot to help protect us from ourselves but seems they might not have done enough.

We have come so far from those boring old days.  Today we are enlightened and oh, so continental and cool.

So what if what we owe continues to grow at such an outlandish pace- it certainly is sustainable for who would tell the U.S. that “we won’t invest in you any longer” or “we would like the money you owe us now please.”  Couldn’t happen, not to us.

So what if the federal government completely controls all that we do- what we eat, where we live, where we work or go to school, what doctor we see and what hospital we are allowed to visit, who or what we marry or if we marry, how many kids we can have and how they are to be treated and raised and fed and taught, what pets we can or cannot have, what music and movies we are allowed to enjoy, what vehicles we are permitted to drive, what shoe wear we can don, what diseases we are allowed to be inoculated for or against, what time we get up, what time we go to sleep, what sports we can play, what songs we can sing, what water we can drink, how many showers we can take, how many flushes of the toilet are allowed per day, how many square feet per person we are allowed to have where we live, who we are to vote for, what information we can glean, what color we must be for certain things, who we can help and who we cannot, who or what we can worship and where and when, what is up, what is down, what is left and what is right…if we are allowed to be born and just when it is that we should die.

This just couldn’t happen here, not to us.

So what if our moral framework is allowed to be anything, anywhere, and anytime.  As long as Hollywood and MTV approve.  Anything can be said or done as long as it does not contain the words “God” or “Christmas” or any such similar, antiquated and now forbidden words.

God does not matter anymore.  Not here, not to us.

Funny.  I used to be religious; I used to believe in the better part of our natures.  Now I just sit back and watch it all fading away.

Couldn’t happen, not here, not to us. 

Funny.  A lot of it already has.

In many ways it is all about what was, and what wasn’t.

Though alive at the time (there goes a hint on my age) I was not old enough to weigh in on the memory (another hint).

It seems to me though that it was all about what was but also what was not.

It was a time when war was done (WW2 and Korea) but also was not (the Cold War, nascent Vietnam).

It was a time of the young and energetic (JFK, Peace Corps, Freedom Riders) but also about the old guard (LBJ, U.S. Steel & the Union, KKK).

It was a time for securing civil rights for all but, then again, it wasn’t.  At least not yet. 

It was a time for addressing and eradicating poverty- it was addressed but was not eradicated.

It was a time when many fought for the expansion of entitlements.  Under JFK this was not an immediate initiative but later was under LBJ and “The Great Society”.

It was becoming about sleek, fast cars and no longer about “your father’s Buick”.  “Fast and loose, isn’t that right Bert?”

It was not about openly attacking communism in war but was about trying to contain it in peace through strength.  And several fuses were lit.

It was about beginning to throw off your inhibitions on many social mores but was not about foreseeing where all of that may eventually go.  A truly open classroom experiment.

It was about the growing experimentation with sex and drugs and music and not about locking yourself into what you had been brought up to believe.  Mom and Dad were just plain wrong; or at least not very hip or cool.

It was about what you can do for your country and was not about what your country can do for you.

How true is that these days?

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”

London and Paris; Britain and France; Camelot.

Washington, D.C. and Anytown, U.S.A.

I wonder how many young people know what happened on this date (I’ll let them off the hook on the matter of what year it was) if they are not told ahead of time.  I wonder how many of you do as well.

Tomorrow will mark the 50^th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the 35^th President of these United States.  I think that I saw there have been 40,000 (or was it 400,000??) books written about JFK (short for John Fitzgerald Kennedy for those of us in the know), not sure how many were written specifically about Lee Harvey Oswald (the man who reportedly killed JFK).  He never went by LHO as far as I am aware but there was LBJ (if you need to know then please look it up).

It really seems to me that we may never completely know what happened that day but I would bet it would not be as simple as the Warren Commission concluded and it would not be as complex as the conspiracy theorists would have you believe.  I even see that a recent book again tries to finger LBJ for the murder.  Guessin’ I ain’t really believin’ that all that much.

There is the mental game you can play as to what would have happened, where would we be today, had he failed to travel to Dallas or had Oswald missed or had they installed the bubbletop or had Oswald gotten the flu…  If only the rain had continued the latter part of that morning the man’s life would have been saved and history altered as we know it.  How could a more tragic event hinge upon such a simple thing as the fact that the rain had stopped?  There are many such little things we know that greatly altered history and I’m sure many, many more we will never know.

It was such a different world in those days.  How much more information would we have today about the act, about the day?  The Zapruder film (look it up if you need to) seems so antiquated from our perspective today- almost like from some old 30’s movie. No, today, we would have so much video and so many pix and audio from countless sources.  And likely the assassin would not have gotten so easily away from the scene.  And J.D. Tippit would still be alive.  And Ruby would have never gotten the chance.  And Oswald might still be alive- an old man- today in some prison cell.

So maybe JFK didn’t have to die or, if he did, maybe we would know more had Oswald also not been killed.

And the world today, this country today, would likely be much different.  I’m not saying better or worse because who really knows for sure.  Just saying…different.

But, I suppose, there are lots of little things that cause impactful moments to happen a certain way and there isn’t much we’ll ever be able to do to change that, either before or after the fact.

We just keep going as best we can.

Hey, a shout out.  Happy Birthday Dad!  Getting’ older y’know!

So, alone, and no responses or comments yet on any of my posts- and this will be my ninth I think.  Anonymity- it speaks volumes about being left alone.

Not much time to write today as time is running out on me.  Things had best get done at a record pace and this world had better clean itself up lickity- split (is that how you spell that?)

Music tonight- a concert.  Music is good, I think most everyone would agree with that right?  Maybe the definitions of what each of us thinks makes up good music is different but, still, like life and love and religion and politics there are opinions to be held and shared.  What are yours?

Please speak to me.  It’s mighty lonely in here, all alone and by my lonesome.  Is it me?  Something I said or perhaps should have said, or not said, or done, or not done…?

Have you ever felt that every turn might be the wrong one?  Sometimes I feel that way and sometimes I just hide away and remain uncounted, and unnoticed except perhaps by those who really are no longer there.  Just echoes of what once was and can be no more.  Is that too sad for you?

Music is good.  It helps me to shake or sometimes deepen a mood.  It reminds me of what was and what might still be.  It is often so beautiful and revealing by its very nature.  I really respect those who can write it, who can play it, who can bring it out for all the rest of us to hear and enjoy.

Where would we be without it I ask.  But no question marks here, not again.

Where would we be without music; or art; or books; or family; or friends; or sports; or hobbies; or likes and dislikes; or just the simple beating of our very hearts?   Question mark that, okayokay.

Time is telling and it has indeed told me so much over time.  I wish I had more time to share what it has taught me.  But I don’t so I just ask again where would we be without all of those wonderful things?

No answer?

I have one.  I would be right where I am today, right here and right now.  Alone and misfitted into life and wondering where would I be, really moreso, if I still had any of those things.  Doing without I have done.  Doing with appears to be something that I’ll be doing without.  Maybe for an unending amount of time.

Time to wrap it up I suppose; time to get on with something, anything.  Whatever that may be.  For me, for later, that is music and a concert.

Near the end my dad stopped listening to music and I never knew why- he had loved it so much and taught me so much when I was younger.  But I never knew why he stopped listening.

Today though, this day, I believe that I am beginning to understand.

Heard that another celebrity was heard from- did you hear?

Seems that Oprah (last name withheld because I’m sensitive to these sorts of things) has decided that a good bit of any criticism aimed at our current President is not motivated much by simple disagreement with his or his party’s policies.

Seems she believes there is at least one other fundamental driver behind any such disconnects regarding how this country is to be run.  The fact that some of the policies being put into place, the rules being made, so directly and intimately impact all of us in such a very personal way is not to be considered any reason to express opposition to any of this.

Now I may not have heard the entire interview (with the BBC I believe- isn’t that a bit like bringing up family problems with your sister’s ex-husband?) but in what I heard I did not hear her cite any other possible sources for what she calls the “level of disrespect”:

“There is a level of disrespect for the office that occurs in some cases and maybe in many cases because he’s African-American.  There’s no question about that and it’s the kind of thing that nobody ever says but everybody’s thinking it.”

Really?  Just how does she know all of this?

There’s NO question about that? Really? Based upon what specific evidence (Joe Wilson’s inappropriate interjection notwithstanding)?

NOBODY ever says…?  Really? I hear it all the time in the news, on the talk shows…is she kidding?

…EVERYBODY’S thinking it?  She really knows this?

Look, if she doesn’t really know it- and she doesn’t- then, and this is worse yet, it is something that she really believes.  It’s hard enough to change someone’s position with a set of facts or a line of logic that erodes that position but when it is based on belief then it is perhaps so deeply ingrained that it may never be addressed and eradicated…in her, in anyone.

And I guess that wasn’t all there was.  A further statement included this:

“…there are still generations of people, older people, who were born and bred and marinated in it, in that prejudice and racism, and they just have to die.”

Really?  Really??

It seems to me that if she believes the treatment of a single person is due to the color of his or her skin and then tosses that into a big pot of roiling racism then, by the same token, one might assume her accusation based on a single incident (did she cite anything other than the Joe Wilson comment?) that then fans out to envelop an entire race of people should likewise be tossed into that very same pot.  Isn’t racism racism?

Just who is the actual, identifiable racist here?

There is hardly any doubt that bias and prejudice still exist- and likely always will.  That is indeed unfortunate.  Real racism is alive and well and is so in ALL communities, don’t lie to yourself on that.  I hardly think that Oprah (last name withheld) and her comments have done much to help fix all that.  Really.

Is it just possible that she has marinated in some of the same sauce?

If so then I wonder if she would then suggest the same ultimate solution for herself.  Really.

Yeah, I know, I missed an entry yesterday but it was Sunday and a day of rest…with some football thrown in as well.  Bad weather day here in the once-great state of Illinois.  November tornadoes just don’t seem natural.

So, what did I miss?  What did you miss?  Are you happy yet?  Ooops, did that last week, sorry.

Here we are then, a new week with a fresh slate in front of us.  Have things improved much from last week?  Why am I asking so many questions?  Shoot, there’s another on.

Coming up on the 50^th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination and we still don’t really know the whole story do we?  Not saying it’s anything beyond what is typically believed to be the straight skinny- it was Oswald and Oswald alone.  Just saying there are still a good number of questions without very good answers.  50 years now.

Coming up on Thanksgiving and, for us, a family visit down south.  Maybe we can ask them to come here instead.  Probably be ok but there is always the unexpected when it some to family, especially in-laws.  Eh?

Coming up on Christmas all too fast.  When will we be able to get the outside lights hung up?

Also, when will I get the bathroom vent situation fixed; or finish putting away the lawn furniture; or drain the sticky 10% ethanol gas from the mower; or fix the grout; or get started on what I really need and want to do with the rest of my life?

All standard questions that regular people ask themselves all the time- at least similar I suppose.  No time really to worry about all that’s happening in the country and the world, still I sometimes have to wonder…

If I protest or complain too much will I get flagged as a dissident?  Is it now dangerous to speak up in the United States?  States.  United.  America.  It took four words to describe us; five actually…THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

How do you believe that the world started?  Are you a Creationist or Bigbangist?  Either way it didn’t seem to start perfectly- one with a beautiful garden, evil snake, bad apple, and family murder if I recall correctly; the other had a bunch of stuff, very highly compressed to say the least, just blow up and take around 15 billion years to get to today.  To get to us.

Neither started perfectly and neither appears to be headed for a perfect ending either.  But, for the most part we accept it for what it is and we do our little bit to make it better, or at least make it a little different in some way.

We accept it and really don’t figure it’s worth it or even possible to try to amend what has already passed.  That would be foolish yes?

So why then do some folks insist on doing that with THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA?  It didn’t start perfectly but was certainly a damn sight better than the other options out there at the time.  And, unless I missed something in my history lessons, we have done more than a few things to make it better, to correct the original flaws.

Even if you consider the flaws to be sins there is no real way to amend the beginning.  You really can’t go back again, you can’t change things and just start over without throwing out everything that happened in between;  baby with the bath water as they say.

So what do you want to fix- the way we started or the way we are today?  Think about it in your own life.  Even if your own beginning was bad you really only have the ability to change what is in the here and now and not the there and then. You can acknowledge what has passed and focus in on what is yet to come.

As was said in a movie I believe: “You can get busy livin’ or you can get busy dyin’”  Choices; decisions; again.