by Don Nash, Unknown News
July 23, 2004
Welcome to the “new” America. It really doesn’t seem like the America that I remember growing up. It's a ‘harsher and more cruel’ America.
You hear on the news almost every day, that America is “polarized”, and possibly it is. Maybe this is all just a device being used to divide America. Remember the old adage, divide then conquer? Polarized is the same thing.
Did you attend one of those whiz-bang and colossal July 4th celebrations? With the extravagant productions and patriotic music and loads of flags and speeches being made by people that, generally, you wouldn’t see out in public on a bet. Hoards of children decked out in red, white, and blue with the smiling faces and spectacular fireworks and lots and really lots of “God bless America”.
Welcome to the “faith based” United States, and a new religion for America -- the non-separation of church and state.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the 4th of July. It has always been one of my favorite American holidays. The 4th of July is supposed to celebrate the great American revolutionary. The notion of telling some pompous authority to go and piss up a rope is a distinctly American notion. We as a nation have celebrated that remarkable achievement for two hundred and twenty eight years.
The idea of some religion dictating to Americans exactly how Americans are to worship is another dictate that tends to give Americans the impetus to extend to the dictating religion an open door and an invitation to take a flying leap.
Remember Dirty Harry? Clint Eastwood as the anti-hero cop that plays by his own rules of right and wrong. An American tradition. Remember Rambo? Sylvester Stallone plays the returning war anti-hero veteran that has been screwed by the government and then must deal with a local community that has lost all sense of real American values and sense of fair play. Remember Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper in Easy Rider? Hopper’s one-finger salute at the end of the movie is an American standard and classic. America has always had a fondness for the underdog down-and-out anti-hero. That is America. That underdog down-and-out anti-hero is ‘we the people’.
In order to form a more perfect Union, we the people told King George III to “fuck off!” It is crude, it is vulgar, it is typically American. America and America’s people have always done everything the American way. With the old ‘one finger’ held proudly and high, we Americans go about our business our way.
Our way, the American way, is under sinister and devious attack -- and this attack is cloaked in the American flag. This attack is cloaked in the ‘right to life’ mantra, the mindless repetition of ‘God bless America’, the ‘marriage amendment’, the ‘war on terror’. It is cloaked in corporate censorship.
Have you tried to wear a t-shirt to work that has “up yours” on it, or one of those uniquely American phrases like “no more bush, no more war” or “anybody but bush” -- and the boss sent you home to change your shirt? Did you get threatened with the loss of your job if you do it again? That is corporate censorship.
America’s innate right to wear that crack wise t-shirt is almost lost. Americans have always led the world in the ability to crack wise. We the people, are the wise crack leaders of the world. Nobody on the planet does it better than us.
Whoopi Goldberg was the spokesperson for Slim-Fast, until she made a wisecrack about George Bush at some fund-raiser dinner for the Democrats and the Republicans didn’t like it. The Republicans didn’t like it so badly, they got Ms. Goldberg fired from her job as spokesperson for Slim-Fast. Ms. Goldberg wasn’t even working as spokesperson for Slim-Fast at the fancy fund-raiser, she was just doing what Ms. Goldberg does for a living -- cracking wise. She is a world class smart-ass and one of my personal heroes. That having been established, what Slim-Fast and the Republicans did to Ms. Goldberg, really pisses me off.
In some respects, this is the straw that has broken my camel’s back. I am mad as hell about this and I am not going to stand for it any longer.
You can’t be a wise ass in America? That is not going to happen. Not now, not tomorrow, and not ever.
America, if it is anything at all, it is a nation of wise asses.
It is every American’s constitutional right to speak freely, wherever and whenever the need to speak out arises. Don’t let anyone, any politician, any church leader, any boss, or any corporate spokesperson tell you otherwise.
The right to crack wise at some fancy fund-raiser is exactly why our forefathers fought the British and gave us America. The right to gather peaceably on any street and crack wise in protest or whatever, is exactly why our forefathers fought the British and gave to us “the land of the free and home of the brave.”
© 2004, by the author.
What do you think?
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In order to form a more perfect Union, we the people told King George III to “fuck off!”
It is crude, it is vulgar, it is typically American. America and America’s people have always done everything the American way.
With the old ‘one finger’ held proudly and high, we Americans go about our business our way.
|
|
|
Our way, the American way, is under sinister and devious attack -- and this attack is cloaked in the American flag.
This attack is cloaked in the ‘right to life’ mantra, the mindless repetition of ‘God bless America’, the ‘marriage amendment’, the ‘war on terror’.
It is cloaked in corporate censorship.
|
|
|
You can’t be a wise ass in America?
That is not going to happen. Not now, not tomorrow, and not ever.
America, if it is anything at all, it is a nation of wise asses.
It is every American’s constitutional right to speak freely, wherever and whenever the need to speak out arises.
Don’t let anyone, any politician, any church leader, any boss, or any corporate spokesperson tell you otherwise.
The right to crack wise at some fancy fund-raiser is exactly why our forefathers fought the British and gave us America.
The right to gather peaceably on any street and crack wise in protest or whatever, is exactly why our forefathers fought the British and gave to us “the land of the free and home of the brave.”
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