Betrayal and Redemption

Flipping through the channels the other night, I caught a special on HBO called “Right America: Feeling Wronged.” While I have mixed feelings about the show, due to the stereotypical presentations of anti-gay, pro-life Christian Conservatives, NASCAR hicks and proud Rednecks, these people spoke the words I’ve been mulling about in my head and heart this last year. I didn’t see myself portrayed, but they spoke a truth that I couldn’t deny. Hearing their words, I thought: these folks are the meat and potatoes of our country. They are what give America its grit and pride. These people are the real deal.

Our beloved country is about to be stolen from us, maybe it’s already been taken from us, and we’re still too numb to know how to respond. When I saw scenes in the program on the campaign trail of the McCain supporters in many different states, I was buoyed yet also very sad. All of these people believed McCain, and our country, would win. They spoke truths about the terrorist threat to our country that our elected officials do not seem to understand. They spoke truths about the state of the economy, about the impact of illegal immigrants on jobs, resources, and on our society, and asked how can we trust our president when we don’t even know for certain if he’s an American citizen.

Listening to talk radio hosts present their side of the story these last few months, I am taken back in time to junior and high school social studies classes, when we studied the birth of our country and what made it so radical. I am awestruck by how far our society has come from the truths and values of our founding fathers. Thomas Jefferson said, “The government is best which governs the least because its people discipline themselves.” We have dumbed down our society. We have forgotten our true values of responsibility, accountability, and the ability to stand on our own two feet. We have forgotten how to be honest, decent, and courteous. We are no longer disciplined. We have sold our souls. For what?

My upbringing was in the birthplace of the American Revolution, in Lexington, Massachusetts. My father was a Common Cause Democrat until he realized that entitlement gets people nowhere. That in order to contribute to society, one must give back, not take, take, take. America gives people the choice to pursue life, liberty, and happiness, but one has to work towards those goals. People need to use their brains and their muscles and utilize the life God has bestowed upon them. It’s one thing to need a helping hand now and then, but to demand that the hand constantly be there is dehumanizing. It robs us of choices, because that helping hand always comes at a steep price, with strings attached.

I am angry at the way our elders, our soldiers, and our children are being treated in this country. People who have worked their entire lives are facing hardships and may soon be denied medical care because some government body is going to make their health decisions. Our soldiers’ sacrifices are disrespected by our government and by people in this country who don’t understand that we have to fight for what we believe in. Our children are being cheated by parents who have no idea how to effectively raise them, then they are sent off to school where they are expected to memorize “facts” about climate change and the liberal agenda. Why aren’t our children being taught how to think for themselves, presented with all sides of the story, and guided towards expressing themselves knowledgably and effectively?

I am sad, I feel duped, and I feel betrayed. Where are all these McCain supporters now? Where are all these angry, betrayed citizens? How can we come together, and figure out how to reclaim what has been taken from us? Our beloved United States of America is being tested in a major transformative way. How will this all look after the dust settles? Who will survive? Could another Civil War be brewing? This time, it’s going to be a lot more complicated since there are many more opposing forces from around the world that are not exactly on our side. Yet, people around the world continue to look towards us to follow their dreams of freedom, to live in peace and to prosper. Are we still that great promise?

A New World? Or just the same old thing...

The King has been crowned. Now it's time to get to work. Now we'll begin to see what our new president is really all about. If he "walks the talk". How he's going to insert his influence into our daily lives, and how our leaders will influence us and the rest of the world.

The economy is out of his control. It's a lumbering ox that reacts and responds to the environment around it, and there's not alot we can do to influence that. We can muck it up with our interference, but given a chance, it rights itself and continues its cycle. Kind of like global warming... the planet is going to do what it's going to do, in cycle with the universe surrounding us. If we try to influence it, we'll muck that up too, and hurt ourselves in the process. Hey, whatever happened to just conserving resources, because it makes the resources last longer and go further? Why is there all this morality suddenly attached to using cloth bags over plastic, or turning lights off when you're not in a room? My father taught me that 30 years ago! I guess we were ahead of our time, and the rest of the world had to catch up.

But, I digress. Why has the mainstream media put Mr Obama on a pedestal? Is it because he's cool, he's hip, he's different? Heck, he could be Mr. GQ. He certainly looks different than most of the old white guys who have led our country up to this point. Is it because they want to finally assuage the collective guilt over the racial divide? Mr Obama is not the first black president we've had. He's the first BIRACIAL president we've ever had. That fact was conveniently forgotten. The black part was stressed. Isn't that kind of a slap in the face to his mother? I think that all the people who voted for him (or not) BECAUSE he's BLACK are racist. The people who didn't care what color he is, and voted for him because he represents integrity and self-responsibilty are the truly color-blind among us. If our country, and our media were truly color-blind, they wouldn't have made such a big deal about his race. He would be judged on the content of his character, not his complexion. We as a people really have a lot of work to do if we make this a pinnacle event... there are dark-skinned rulers, and even women leading countries around the world, and it's just matter of fact.

What were the multitudes of inaugural attendees thinking and hoping as they froze their patooties off? That our new king is going to pay off their house? Give them a job? Give them free health care? I hope not. They will be sorely disappointed. Nothing is free, and nothing comes without hard work. I was happy to hear him speak about self-responsibility. I was happy to hear him speak about service. In that, he echoed JFK's speech: Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country. I hope all those people heard that message. I hope they don't expect the government to bail them out, too. If we leave it up to the government to create jobs, it will create more government to oversee those jobs, and we will pay more out of our hard-earned paychecks.

I'm disgusted at the amount of money that was spent throughout the entire process, money that could have gone to other more worthy resources. But, that's now water under the bridge. I hope the mainstream media is happy now that their man is at the helm, and they can maybe do some serious, down to earth reporting of events without continually casting our new president in a messianic light. For if they persist in that, we will all be incredibly dissapointed when he lets us down, which of course he will, because Mr Obama is just a human being. He's not Jesus, he's not Elijah, he's just Barack.

Time will tell if he really is any more effective than any other president we've had.