My Native Tongue

Anyone who has ever traveled to a foreign country where theirs is not the prevalent language, has probably noticed that they can hear their mother tongue spoken even across a crowded and noisy room. My ears are keener still, for I can hear my native tongue spoken from 4 blocks away! My native tongue is Bullshit. When, in the same foreign country, a native of that land tries to converse with you in your own language, you appreciate the effort, regardless of how clumsy their attempt may be. After a while, however, even the most polite traveler, may note that prolonged exposure to the butchering of their mother tongue tends to grate on one's ear. In this, I am no different. While I appreciate those of you who try to speak proper Bullshit to me, after successive clumsy attempts, it does offend my ear. For this reason, I shall try to confine my musings to English, but, should I occasionally lapse into my Native Tongue, please, bear with me and do not feel obliged to join me on a similar linguistic tangent. If this note offends you, you should probably leave now, before my thoughts on Religion and Politics cause you serious distress.

Tears and Rage

When I was a child I was taught of America. It was a Fabled Land where the milk and honey of Freedom ran in the streets, conceived by an idealistic people who, having felt themselves oppressed for so long, rose up and threw out their oppressors. It was born of a miracle of courage and determination that led landed gentry and peasant farmers, merchants and tradesmen, Protestants and Catholics to see beyond their personal differences, band together, and rise up as one, declaring to the world, "We will bear the yoke of tyranny no more!" And I believed. From the spacious skies to the amber waves of grain, I believed. I was fortunate enough to be able to travel this land from sea to shining sea, and I believed. Then I saw poverty and hunger. I saw ignorance and bigotry. I saw hatred. I asked how these could exist in such a glorious and just land, and, much like the boy who could not see the Emperor's New Clothes, I was shushed. So I did as I was told, and I was quiet. I did as I has been taught, and I believed. I still do. The words that will follow in this place do not evince any change in that belief. Rather, it is as a result of that belief that I feel compelled to write them now. If you have known something precious when it was bright and new, and then you see it tarnished and worn, even cast down in the mud and trampled upon, do you not weep to see its abuse and do everything in your power to lift it up and repair it as best you can? If you know that abuse to be deliberate, do you not feel rage? I see this Fabled Land, once a shining beacon in the night to the oppressed throughout the world, now tarnished and soiled. Her noble flag, woven of hope in the face of despair, and defended with the blood of her Heroes, that blessed Star Spangled Banner, I see now tattered and worn. I weep to see these abuses, and I would repair them. I see the sacred parchments of "We the People" and the precious ideals they espouse cast down in the mud and wantonly trampled. I see the very precepts upon which this nation was founded twisted and betrayed for personal gain, and I rage! This does not mean that my belief has been lessened. My Faith in this nation and that for which it once stood is stronger than ever. It is those things for which it has been made to stand that give me pause. It is the flagrant usurpation of individual freedoms, once held so dear, that move me to tears. It is the brazen betrayal of the public trust for political and financial gain which leads me to rage! I am not moved to such strong emotions by any weakening of my belief, but rather by its strength. I still believe. But I also still see, and, unlike that child who questioned so long ago, I will no longer be shushed. The Emperor has NO new clothes! In fact, he's stealing yours! These are my tears. This is my rage. Where, in the name of all that is right, and just, and decent, are yours?

Friday, January 18, 2008

We the People



Happy New Year! Brace yourselves. I believe I have hit upon the one New Year’s Resolution we ALL need to make. Eat healthier, exercise, quit smoking (Yes, Dear, me included!), those are all very good. Be nicer to strangers, call your mom more, stop listening to the Voices (Sorry, that one’s just me!), also excellent ideas. I believe, however, that our ENTIRE NATION is in desperate need of our combined efforts in another area.

What was, in my youth, a nation of fifty states, ALL of which proudly proclaimed themselves red, white, and blue, has digressed, of late, into an angry rabble. Now states are either red or blue. That’s it. The only white to be found is the flag of surrender run up by the concepts of courtesy, decency, and respect, all of which have been so badly beaten into submission, that they have long since fled the field. We have allowed ourselves to become a nation of Hatfields and McCoys. Political debates today should begin with the words, “And in this corner...”

I’m NOT pointing any fingers. I suspect there is enough blame to go around for BOTH sides. I’m neither slinging mud, nor throwing rocks. I am merely suggesting that BOTH sides learn to play well together. We’ve only got this one sand box! “I saw it first!” “He’s poking me!” “Nuh-uh!” “Yeah-huh!” Is this really how we want to behave? Have the parents truly regressed into behaviors that we wouldn’t tolerate from our own children? Have we all, in fact, become the children?

I’ve been just as guilty as the next person. But, isn’t admitting the problem the first step? I’m not suggesting that anyone surrender their beliefs, only that we all stop thinking of those who hold beliefs which differ from our own as being “Stupid” (or worse). I know I’ve often been confused when I view a political topic and see it as “THIS”, only to have someone else view the same topic and see it as “THAT”. It’s easy to assume that there’s something wrong with the other person’s eyes, and barring that, the brain behind them. BUT, what if you know that other person to be afflicted in neither area?

When I find myself slipping into such behaviors, I remember four specific individuals: A neighbor, now retired, who once served in high positions in the Republican Party in his home state, even unto a Presidential appointment! Two women, both Realtors (Yes, many of them HAVE souls!), one a former journalism major, the other the wife of a retired Colonel in the U.S. Army. And a gentleman a few years my senior, with whom I discuss such topics regularly in an area pub. ALL of these people are possessed of keen and agile minds, all have sharp wits, all have good hearts, and all are good souls. Almost invariably though, where I see “THIS”, they see “THAT”.

I can not, and WILL NOT dismiss them as being either dim, dull, delusional, or Dark, and I know myself to be none of these as well. I also know that I can’t be only one who has found himself in this situation, and I know it’s not a new phenomenon. Thomas Jefferson wrote:


Subject opinion to coercion: whom do you make your inquisitors? FALLIBLE men; men governed by bad passions, by private as well as public reasons. And why subject it to coercion? To produce uniformity. But is uniformity of opinion desirable? No more than of face or stature.

Reason and persuasion are the only practicable instruments. To make way for these free inquiry must be indulged: and how can we wish others to indulge it while we refuse it ourselves?



Jefferson was speaking of the coercion of religious thought, but I find the words apply just as aptly to the area of political debate today. Something is broken. We can fix it, but we must do it together. No one else will do it for us. That’s NOT their job! That’s OUR job! WE THE PEOPLE. That’s why we got top billing on that paper so long ago. We can build a better sand box, but we CANNOT do it bickering amongst ourselves. If you must think of it as two teams, think of it as Offense and Defense, but BOTH wearing the SAME jerseys! Because if all we do is continue to beat red and blue against one another, all we’ll get is PURPLE. You know, the color of old bruises! We the People deserve better than old bruises.

Again, Happy New Year, and Good Luck!

Posted by at
Labels: ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)