Some things going on with the American citizens

January 27, 2006

I had a conversation today with Ken our propane delivery guy. He told me that he was hearing his customers complaining about the fact that their propane bills are two times as costly as last year. I told him that I agreed and that gasoline for my truck and diesel for my tractor had also doubled in price since last year. He agreed. We also talked about the government 20 year study that was just released today that claims the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. The study showed that the rich income level rose by 59% in the past 20 years while the poor income level only rose by only 19% in that same 20 year period. The study cited a basically flat minimum wage and jobs being shipped overseas as a couple of reasons why the poor are staying poor. This is a problem we have been hearing about from some politicians and media personnel for several years now. What’s going on?

People are getting fatter, meaner, less tolerant, closed minded, ignorant and more fearful. These truths sadden me just as much as they scare me. What’s going on? I mean look around. Have you noticed how many of us are overweight? A recent study reported on CNN Headline news and other news networks stated that our tolerance for “over weight people” has shifted to be more tolerant over the last 20 years. I wonder if that has any correlation with the fact that so many more of us are now overweight. Have we become such a gluttonous society that we are literally destroying ourselves? Bigger vehicles, larger debt and much bigger waistlines, that’s America today. Keeping up with the Jones is taking its toll on us. There are potentially serious medical risks with being overweight. I’m no doctor but aren’t diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease a few of the potential medical risks from being overweight?

Acquiring larger debt should really speak for itself. We may say that the check is in the mail but the bill really comes due someday. This goes for us as individuals as well as our governments. If we don’t care about our own physical health and let ourselves get fat, we will make our loved ones pay the emotional price and in some cases the monetary price for our poor health. There will be a monetary and by extension emotional price to pay for allowing our government at the federal level to accumulate so much debt. But it seems we stopped caring about anyone but ourselves a while ago. That is sad. We don’t care enough about our own children’s future to spare them the emotional burden of the repercussions of our gluttony. Nor do we care about their financial and by extension emotional well being by allowing the federal government to accumulate unprecedented debt. The bills will come due someday. This scares me.

We are borrowing more money as a nation from countries such as China and Israel than we ever have. We are borrowing 2.2 billion dollars every day just to keep us running. What would happen if they called in their notes? According to most economists our economy would collapse. This is an important issue. It concerns me. I care. It scares me.

We are meaner now than I can ever remember in my 41 years. Mean is everywhere. There is much less respect and tolerance than when I was a child. Television has corrupted us. Many of the shows on t.v. or movies at the theatre are filled with violence and intolerance. Killing people has become so desensitized that murder has no value anymore. We murder people for murdering people. We murder people in the guises of such things as weapons of mass destruction and then when we find none we switch our reasoning and justification for these murders to “spreading democracy”. I guess it is like in the movies. Since it is not happening here it really isn’t real. But you know what? The bill also comes due someday for this. Ken and I touched on this too in our conversation today. Do we really believe that we can go into a sovereign nation who posed no imminent threat to us whatsoever and murder thousands upon thousands of innocent babies, children and women under any guise without future negative repercussions? What’s going on? Might we actually be creating a thousand, maybe a million or more Bin Laden’s by our unjustified murder? God Bless our children and their children and so on. Lord keep and protect them from our sins. This is not a political thing. This is basic humanity. This is the true culture of life. Who would Jesus bomb?

I believe the reason so many American’s support this murder of innocent babies, children and women is two fold at least. One we have become mean. And two we are easily brainwashed and scared. Our allegiance to a particular political party clouds our judgment as well.

The recent beating murders of homeless people in Miami and the brawl with fans in the stands during the NBA game November 19, 2005 in Detroit are just two examples of meanness. Why has it become acceptable for us sports fans to throw things at the players? Why has it become a “game” for teenagers to beat and kill homeless people? When did it become o.k. for us to kill the parents of our girlfriend just because they didn’t want us committing statutory rape on their daughter?

We have become fatter, in spite of gluttony being one of the seven deadly sins. We have become much less like Jesus. We are much less tolerant than some would think about such an “advanced” society. Anti gay marriage legislation drove many right wing conservatives to the polls during the presidential election in 2004. This was a direct effort by the Republican Party to motivate their base. It worked. They were able to capitalize on the intolerance within their base. They used it to their political advantage. While their jobs were being shipped overseas and the wages of those who still had jobs were flat, these same people went to the polls in droves to express intolerance over self preservation. While Osama Bin Laden was still running loose plotting more and more terror to rein down on all Americans the republicans were more concerned about keeping hate and intolerance alive. The American people rewarded them.

Our borders are still not safe; we still have not captured Osama. We have now sold 6 U.S. ports to a terrorist nation. Our nuclear power plants are still not protected from terrorists nor is the cargo flying on commercial airlines when you and I fly. However, and I say so sarcastically, more importantly the other day Bill Frist reintroduced the idea of an “anti gay marriage” amendment. This is another example of how the Republican Party uses wedges issues involving intolerance to hide the truth about the real issues that concern America.

Our close mindedness is a direct result of our intolerance and ignorance. We read less and watch television more. My friend and I recently were out looking for a book mentioned in a local newspaper. Since it was much closer to go north nearer to Indianapolis we headed that way. We could not believe how hard it was to locate a bookstore. There was one in the mall hidden behind a barrage of kiosks selling cell phones, cell phone accessories and personalized t-shirts. The book store was small and not very well stocked. We left the mall and continued up and down the major byway looking for a “real” bookstore. It was a slap of reality. Americans don’t read.

By not reading books, magazines and newspapers we make ourselves close minded and ignorant. If we don’t care about our physical health (fatter) then why should we care about our mental health, right? And since most all of our media outlets are owned by right wing companies [i.e. NBC is owned by G.E. (defense contracts…great in time of war), ABC is owned by Disney and Fox is owned by Rupert Murdoch right wing pundit and mouth piece of the Republican Party filled with hate filled propaganda and spin.] our news is not really news but rather what they want us to know. The news is inarguably shaped by the interests of the ownership. Why would NBC allow real news, negative news about the war Iraq and the repercussions of war to be shown to its viewers when this would be counterproductive to the bottom line? BASF…."we don’t make the products you buy….we make the products you buy better.” Have you ever wondered like I did for years what that commercial was all about? BASF is a petroleum industry and unless you are very very rich and in the market for an oil rig you most likely will never do business directly with BASF. However, to control the news content of ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and CNN, BASF buys huge dollar advertising space/time.

Since we don’t read books, magazines or newspapers anymore and opt for t.v. all of the time, we have become close minded. We buy the propaganda and lies being peddled by special interests. As long as we can sit in our living rooms and watch our big screen hd tv eating pizza, wings and drinking soda pop and beer, we don’t give a damn about “dumbing down.” Ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance is dangerous. Ignorance is dangerous to our physical health, our mental health and our democracy too. Ignorance mixed with apathy may bring the end to our democracy.

Go ahead and continue to buy all of the fat ridden products being dangled in your face through repeated advertising. Go ahead and support the illegal war in Iraq because you have bought changing lie after changing lie as justification. Go ahead and be ignorant to the truth. If the cholesterol, hyper tension or heart disease doesn’t kill you then the newly created Islamic jihadist just might. The long term repercussions of our illegal war and murder of thousands upon thousands of innocent babies, women and children will likely be much more deadly for your children or their children. Do you really care about them anyway?

Of course our intolerance, close mindedness and ignorance are all possible because of fear. Whatever happened to the “land of the free….and the home of the brave?”
America is no longer brave. Give me a break. The Bush administration and the Republican controlled congress have you people scared to death. The boogie man is going to get you; the boogie man that they can’t catch. But do they really want to catch the boogie man? If they catch the boogie man then how will they use fear to control us?

911 is invoked so often during a canned speech that Bush or Cheney give it is nauseating. Smoking guns and mushroom clouds were frightening things Condoleeza Rice and Dick Cheney used to scare us to death. Bush just kept mentioning Osama bin laden and Sadam Hussein in the same sentence as often as he could in a deceitful way in hopes to make us believe they were linked together. He still does even though the 911 Commission Report found no links between Hussein and Bin Laden or Al Qaida. Oil and water do not mix well. Osama bin laden is an Islamic fundamentalist and Sadam Hussein was a non secular dictator; oil and water. But by constantly mention the two in the same speeches every member of the Bush administration could “fear” us to death.

History has proven that fear can be used to control the masses. If worked well for Hitler. And our own government used fear as a tool during the Cold War but it has been used much more under Bush and the republican controlled congress.

We have indeed become fatter, meaner, less tolerant, close minded, ignorant and more fearful as a people. These things scare me. They sadden me. All of these things contribute to the erosion of our values, mental and physical health and respect for ourselves and from others in our shared world. My suggestion to all of us would be put down the cheese burger and fries; take a deep breath and count to ten instead of exploding when something doesn’t go our way; accept that others are different than us while being equally a human being; open our minds to other points of view that may differ from our own; read some books, magazines, newspapers and blogs; and realize that knowledge is power, fear is weakness while freedom is being brave and aware.
Good luck and God Bless You.