American Dinosaur

Off the Cuff

Is it just me or is America seem to be slowly losing it greatness. I don't know how much longer I can blog in this current climate. I love information and I want to know about what is going on all over the world and the US but I am fed up with all the Bullshit all the time. Doesn't character matter anymore?

I own a small business and have been through good times and bad, triumph and tragedy. For seventeen years I have worked my version of the American dream. I have achieved a modicum of success and look forward to the day when I can retire and enjoy it.............Will that day ever come?

I have managed to survive in a very competitive industry full of sharks and snakes. The small are eaten by the large and the large scorch the earth. I have kept in the game through a simple strategy. Character. Character does matter and honesty and integrity will prevail over deception and treachery.

I am currently reading 1776 by David Mc Cullough. it is a book that I highly reccommend. It is about the fathers of our country and how they put everything on the line, everything. The determination and dedication to a cause that gave birth to the greatest nation in history. These men were not the downtrodden with nothing to lose, they we the wealthy and educated landowners with everything to lose. Where are those type of men now?

I look at my father in the twilight of his life. A member of the Greatest generation, that gave their all to make the world safe and built a nation that had no rival by hardwork, honesty, and integrity. They are dying all around us with very few replacements. Today we have the whats in it for me generation.

We live in a country that has removed God from our schools, our culture, and our lives. We have replaced the Ten Commandments with the an anything-goes attitude as long as it isn't Christian. I am not a particularly pious man but I live by the Ten Commandments and it seems we would do well by them. The void is not being filled with those things that made us great.

I see the deplorable behavior of the leaders of the black community after Katrina. They have made a natural disaster into a race disaster. There is no responsibility and no integrity. The shocking lack of character by so many in high positions is frightening. The days of personal responsibility are over and I am not sure we can recover from this last roundhouse to the jaw of freedom. Is the cradle-to-grave goverment intervention in our lives finally here?

I watched some of the most despicable men and women in Congress shake their finger at Judge Roberts and behave in ways that would make a prostitute blush. Why do they no have a sense of country before party? Is it all that we have left is the pandering and posturing for political longevity? They make fun of his life and his dedication to family, religion, and country, how sad.

I see Cindy Sheehan transform from a grieving mother to a political instrument of the anti-American war protestors. She is now a shell of her former self that will be discarded as soon as she has lost her value as a camera whore. This generation is being lead by many from the 60's and 70's into the same abyss that so deeply wounded American sense of purpose and direction. If Mrs. Sheehan only knew how much it hurt those standing in Casey's place she would never have taken the first step on her tragic journey.

Today a judge decided that many more people must die to punish the military for behavior by a few bad individuals. The ACLU and many democratic leaders will smile with sinister satisfaction in extracting the latest pound of flesh from President Bush. The same President Bush they hold to standards they know he can not possibly hope to attain, yet gave President Clinton a pass on virtually every indescretion known to man.

Why have we lost our way? The world is evolving around us and events will dictate who will determine the future of our planet and our country and we behave like two-year-olds fighting over blocks. The Euros and the Chi-Coms relish in our struggles and the Arabs cheer at every misfortune that comes our way. We are alone in this world and we need to put America first again. The partisan bickering and fight to grab the microphone and denounce the Evil Americans has got to stop.

I can go on and on...........

When will it be in vogue again to be patriotic and proud? I know this whole post sounds childish and naive. Maybe it is because I miss the America of my youth that taught me so many good things about humanity and prospect of a bright future. I grow weary of the incessant drubbing of our country. Patton said "It appears that America will become the punching bag of the world." in 1916. I am afraid we have not learned from our own history.

I love this country with all her faults and her clay feet. The very things that make us great, also expose us to all the ills that may be our undoing. We have prevailed in the past only because our resolve was backed with the one thing that can save a nation......Character.

Posted by BillyBudd at September 29, 2005 06:43 PM | TrackBack