Saturday, September 17, 2005

A Bottle of Knob Creek Whiskey, A Cool Late Summer Night, that Ole Front Porch and a Confession

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Forgot to mention the iPod blaring "American Idiot" behind me. What a paradox, a Republican-voter drinking whiskey and rocking out to Green Day. Who knew it was gonna be this good? Knob Creek Straight Kentucky Bourbon. My favorite alcoholic beverage next to Guinness. High Ball glass, on the rocks. I have done my best to avoid working this weekend but some of it has slipped through. My wife and I went to a birthday party for her little second-cousin. I never had been more mesmerized by kids playing in a fountain. They had this fountain that shot water to keep kids cool from the hot summer sun. The ground was made from reprocessed tires. The kids were like age 5 or less. They were getting pummelled by the fountain. Not one cried and not one let out one of the those little shrieks that you hear while cruising through a supermarket from a little brat that can't get what they want. For a brief moment in Sacramento today, there was some real peace.

It was with that I reached an epiphany. Liberal and Conservative bloggers both really suck. I am totally guilty of it as well. There is this whole cause and effect thing going on right now and the bloggers ride it into the sunset, day in and day out like they have real control over the politcal landscape of this country. (Totally guilty I know) I started this blog for a bit of therapy. I see so much day in and day out on the road at work that makes me laugh before a take it too seriously. And it usually stems from looking at other people in their cars! I jump on here and start blogging about what it inspires me without care that anyone gives a rat's ass. I am numb most of the time, and sometimes, well it gets to me and then I gotta go read other blogs... Then I hang around those and they inspire me to "Tell it like it is" and well the circle goes on.

But this post is a bit different. (Because I say it is) This country is really great and we that are here are lucky. Not that we're better than anyone else in the world but just for what we know, we're doing pretty well. Wars, hurricanes, Presidents and well, political activists and celebrities come and go. For the last 2, wow, they can disappear ever so faster than they appear. But America lives on even while we turn to shit. I think we enjoy and embrace our freedoms. Sometimes not enough, sometimes way too much. Accepting freedom can actually be tough on someone. Never in our country has our people been so afraid. At least in my life time. I didn't live through the 60's but did I have to live it to appreciate it just a bit? I mean, seriously, I always see and read what people think about what Lincoln and Jefferson would have to say if they lived now like they would even be remotely applicable to today's world. Some hold the ACLU to be more powerful than our Constitution. Why? Who elected them? Why are they so all-knowing? Why should we give a rat's ass about them? People are afraid of the rich. Why? Because they are successful? They played our system with its rules. So we should tax them more than they already pay, and as a class the rich do already pay the most. They don't actually make the poor poorer. Nobody could ever prove that. Or could they? They could if they were biased. And we do live in a world of biased opinions. Read the Washington Post, watch CNN and shoot, read some blogs for your news. And that's what's making it all appear worse, some dude, a computer, some webspace and an opinion. I liked it all better when we all picked up guitars and headed to the coffee shop. What progressives and conservatives alike need to remember is that there will be no Utopia in America unless it is in a fountain full of 5 year olds in a park in Sacramento. Utopia won't happen in our life time if ever. The rich will stay healthy and the sick will stay poor. There will be people in power and there will be people serving them. What I think America needs to get back to is the ideal that people can ascend from the bottom to the top. I say this being from the middle my whole life. You hear stories everyday in entertainment and sports like Hillary Swank and her trailer or Barry Sanders being 7th of 11 kids and having to leave college to get the money. Condi Rice? Bill Clinton? It still happens everyday somewhere in America. Maybe we just need to remember instead of bitching why it doesn't happen to us and appreciate it when it happens to others. We as American's will always have society's blood on our hands in some fashion or another. So why fight each other?




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