Photo courtesy of www.flickr.comWhat is it that's making so many of us pessimistic? It's not just the economy, stupid, although the economy pretty much stinks. Skyrocketing oil prices, corruption in financial markets and a tanked housing market. Food prices going up hour by hour. No, it's not a pretty picture. But a lot of us have been through that before, and we know how to be resourceful and do without, how to hunker down and make do when necessary. We're lucky that our momma and daddy taught us that by example.
And it's not just our politics, either -- our long, national nightmare of the Bush administration -- though it's been an agonizing seven-plus years of watching our nation's moral capital eroding, hearing about torture and suspension of civil rights and realizing with horror that it's not some third-world country they're talking about but our own good, old U.S. of A. After seeing our president on television last night, I actually had a stab of pity for the man. What would be good for him and for the country is for him to just go back down to his ranch in Crawford and start cutting the brush down there. Maybe it will be therapeutic for all of us and keep him from destroying anything else he meddles in. Just keep tidying up that ranch until your term is over.
And it's not just our conspicuous-consumption culture either, worrisome though that is. I mean, look around the world and pick out another country you want to flee to (except for Canada, of course, since we all want to go there or should want to go there, if we knew what was good for us). Until recently, I would have said Scotland, but the dollar is so weak that I couldn't even buy myself haggis for supper with what I've got.
Repressive regimes, genocide, illegal elections, war and famine and trigger-happy bomb lovers.
It's a bit too much, isn't it? Makes me want to bury my face in a good book, turn off the media, pull out a board game, pop some popcorn and ask someone to let me know when it's over.
Guess I'm officially an old fogey now that I've come right out and said it: We're going to hell in a handbasket.
How do I stop this train and get off?
4 comments:
I have spent this rainy gray day with my nose in a book trying not to think about all that and then I opened Ajax Rock! Yipes. How in the world did you find that great photo??? ;)
I just had the words "hell in a handbasket" in my head, looked on flickr and there it was! Isn't it fabulous???
I still have faith in this country, and I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. I think it's easy to idealize other places, but they all have their own problems.
One thing I have learned as I deal with the media is that their job is to sell misery. Things are not as bad as they tell us, especially compared to the rest of the world. Every angle is as overblown as they can make it, so I take the nightly news with a grain of salt.
Good response, Laurie! I agree with all you have said!
I can think of no other country I would want to flee to-
I am proud to live in this country and yes there are problems but it is not the country. It is the handful of people who are trying to tell all of us what we should do. Our President does not have total authority either- he is just a "puppet figure" doing what he is told to do!
I don't like what is happening anymore than the rest of you, but it is still better than leaving!
Post a Comment