Below is my rant about why I haven't been proud of my country most of my adult life. Comments welcome.
I've been thinking about Michelle Obama's contention that for the first time in her Adult life, she feels proud to be an American. While she has been ridiculed for the statement, it got me thinking about what she might have been trying to convey with her words. Here are my thoughts.
In my lifetime, I have lived through the terms of the following political regimes: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. While I don't remember much about Roosevelt and Truman, I was aware of Eisenhower, and by the time Kennedy was running for office, I had grown politically aware. His campaign was the first I felt the need to work for. Still not of an age to vote, I none-the-less walked door to door, in my neighborhood in Denver handing out fliers and bumper stickers I'd picked up at the local Democratic storefront office. I didn't expect Kennedy to win, because all around me the adults, who could vote, were negative about his religion, his youth, his father's source of wealth, and his brother Bobby.
When he did win, I was ecstatic. When his Camelot regime was sworn in, I watched every minute on a little round Philco black and white TV in the window of the local hardware store. My family didn't own a TV in those days. I didn't hear the soundtrack of the inauguration, because the store owner had the sound turned off. I read all about it the next day when I got the papers I delivered on my morning paper route. I was proud.
Proud, because there was something different about JFK. Most prominent in my mind, was he sounded like there was hope for America when he spoke. I was just finishing my third year in high school, and the military or college loomed. College was unlikely, because my folks didn't have the income to support me in higher education. I was working hard for a scholarship, but wasn't hopeful I'd get it. My last year as a senior, I doubled my efforts, longing for a scholarship instead of a military career. I'd grown up an Army brat, and had had enough of the military life by the time I was 15.
The final competition for a scholarship my senior year came about, and when it was over, I stood at the top of the entire state of Colorado in my field, which is art, with thirteen National Merit awards, and a full scholarship to apply to any school I could get into. I was proud, and the lesson I took from that was that all hard work toward a goal would pay off. I worked hard in the school I chose, and received my BFA degree, but it was not a happy time for me, because JFK had been assassinated in Dallas. I applied to another school in New York City, and went there to take the entrance exam. I was a little stunned that any American would kill a sitting president. I wasn't so proud any more.
Then in seemingly rapid succession, Martin Luthor King was assassinated, then Bobby Kennedy, then suddenly, and after Johnson's declining to run, Nixon was president and the Viet Nam war was all I could see or think about. My brother was over there, sending back photos of the "Gooks" he'd run over and crushed with his tank. I was not proud. He finally came home with a necklace of Viet Cong ears, and a serious drug habit. I tried to talk him out of the drugs, but it didn't stop him from becoming a drug dealer/addict for most of his late 20s and all of his 30s and most of his early 40s. I was not proud.
I was protesting the war, and involved in several major marches. The UN march, the DC march, and no matter what we did as young people our voices were not heard. Kent state massacre happened, and I was not proud of my government at all. They were willing to kill our own in order to stifle freedom of speech. Definitely not proud.
I founded a free film school in New York and received a Federal grant to teach ghetto children the science of film making hoping those skills would help them to a better life. The grant money was overseen by a church and an important College in New York. Between the sponsors, the grant money was stolen, and the film school was forced to go it alone after the Federal agency that had given the grant, refused to investigate. I was very un-proud of the sponsors, and the agency for not doing the right thing.
I was invited to lecture in London and Berlin, but when I applied for a passport, it was refused because I was considered an undesirable representative citizen because of my involvement in the anti Viet Nam protests. I was refused annually until 1995, when I was given a passport with no explanation from the government. Extremely un-proud of my vindictive government. After all, I was no Weatherman bombing government buildings, I just stood up and protested the war. I participated in publishing the first notices of the Mi Li massacre, as a wall poster, but that needed to be done to prove the protests were right. Who did the government prosecute? Lt. Calley, a lowly grunt doing what he was told to do by his commanding officers. Not only was I not proud, but disgusted as well.
This rant can go on and on, because I think there has been a lot not to be proud of in America. But I think you get the picture of why I can agree with Michelle Obama that there hasn't been much in my lifetime to be proud of America about. We've had a series of leaders who have not had the best interests of the country or the people at heart. We've been very lax in how we vet our presidents, and as the saying goes, you get out of it what you put into it. Nothing to be proud of.
And now, with the Neocons in office, we can see clearly why we as Americans should not be so proud that we don't clean house of our sickening and compromised politicians. Obama might do well, but his inexperience in a national office will dictate a learning curve. I wish him all the best if he wins, and with honesty like his wife Michelle showed with her statement that began this rant, maybe he will overcome all that faces him if he takes the White House. Anyone would be better than another Repuglican flack toeing their disgusting party line, designed to keep America at war for the next hundred years.
We need change, and we need to move onto another plain of consciousness about who we are as a people, and stop playing world Policeman.
LaloGS
I've been thinking about Michelle Obama's contention that for the first time in her Adult life, she feels proud to be an American. While she has been ridiculed for the statement, it got me thinking about what she might have been trying to convey with her words. Here are my thoughts.
In my lifetime, I have lived through the terms of the following political regimes: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. While I don't remember much about Roosevelt and Truman, I was aware of Eisenhower, and by the time Kennedy was running for office, I had grown politically aware. His campaign was the first I felt the need to work for. Still not of an age to vote, I none-the-less walked door to door, in my neighborhood in Denver handing out fliers and bumper stickers I'd picked up at the local Democratic storefront office. I didn't expect Kennedy to win, because all around me the adults, who could vote, were negative about his religion, his youth, his father's source of wealth, and his brother Bobby.
When he did win, I was ecstatic. When his Camelot regime was sworn in, I watched every minute on a little round Philco black and white TV in the window of the local hardware store. My family didn't own a TV in those days. I didn't hear the soundtrack of the inauguration, because the store owner had the sound turned off. I read all about it the next day when I got the papers I delivered on my morning paper route. I was proud.
Proud, because there was something different about JFK. Most prominent in my mind, was he sounded like there was hope for America when he spoke. I was just finishing my third year in high school, and the military or college loomed. College was unlikely, because my folks didn't have the income to support me in higher education. I was working hard for a scholarship, but wasn't hopeful I'd get it. My last year as a senior, I doubled my efforts, longing for a scholarship instead of a military career. I'd grown up an Army brat, and had had enough of the military life by the time I was 15.
The final competition for a scholarship my senior year came about, and when it was over, I stood at the top of the entire state of Colorado in my field, which is art, with thirteen National Merit awards, and a full scholarship to apply to any school I could get into. I was proud, and the lesson I took from that was that all hard work toward a goal would pay off. I worked hard in the school I chose, and received my BFA degree, but it was not a happy time for me, because JFK had been assassinated in Dallas. I applied to another school in New York City, and went there to take the entrance exam. I was a little stunned that any American would kill a sitting president. I wasn't so proud any more.
Then in seemingly rapid succession, Martin Luthor King was assassinated, then Bobby Kennedy, then suddenly, and after Johnson's declining to run, Nixon was president and the Viet Nam war was all I could see or think about. My brother was over there, sending back photos of the "Gooks" he'd run over and crushed with his tank. I was not proud. He finally came home with a necklace of Viet Cong ears, and a serious drug habit. I tried to talk him out of the drugs, but it didn't stop him from becoming a drug dealer/addict for most of his late 20s and all of his 30s and most of his early 40s. I was not proud.
I was protesting the war, and involved in several major marches. The UN march, the DC march, and no matter what we did as young people our voices were not heard. Kent state massacre happened, and I was not proud of my government at all. They were willing to kill our own in order to stifle freedom of speech. Definitely not proud.
I founded a free film school in New York and received a Federal grant to teach ghetto children the science of film making hoping those skills would help them to a better life. The grant money was overseen by a church and an important College in New York. Between the sponsors, the grant money was stolen, and the film school was forced to go it alone after the Federal agency that had given the grant, refused to investigate. I was very un-proud of the sponsors, and the agency for not doing the right thing.
I was invited to lecture in London and Berlin, but when I applied for a passport, it was refused because I was considered an undesirable representative citizen because of my involvement in the anti Viet Nam protests. I was refused annually until 1995, when I was given a passport with no explanation from the government. Extremely un-proud of my vindictive government. After all, I was no Weatherman bombing government buildings, I just stood up and protested the war. I participated in publishing the first notices of the Mi Li massacre, as a wall poster, but that needed to be done to prove the protests were right. Who did the government prosecute? Lt. Calley, a lowly grunt doing what he was told to do by his commanding officers. Not only was I not proud, but disgusted as well.
This rant can go on and on, because I think there has been a lot not to be proud of in America. But I think you get the picture of why I can agree with Michelle Obama that there hasn't been much in my lifetime to be proud of America about. We've had a series of leaders who have not had the best interests of the country or the people at heart. We've been very lax in how we vet our presidents, and as the saying goes, you get out of it what you put into it. Nothing to be proud of.
And now, with the Neocons in office, we can see clearly why we as Americans should not be so proud that we don't clean house of our sickening and compromised politicians. Obama might do well, but his inexperience in a national office will dictate a learning curve. I wish him all the best if he wins, and with honesty like his wife Michelle showed with her statement that began this rant, maybe he will overcome all that faces him if he takes the White House. Anyone would be better than another Repuglican flack toeing their disgusting party line, designed to keep America at war for the next hundred years.
We need change, and we need to move onto another plain of consciousness about who we are as a people, and stop playing world Policeman.
LaloGS
