Are We Throwing It All Away? [Reader Post]

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When I ask this question, people scoff. They simply have no clue that everything we have, everything we have fought for can easily come to nothing if we are not willing to hold on to it. This world is a place where tyranny’s ugly face constantly rears itself, but to listen to many of the voices of those whom we trust to carry our representation as the Founding Fathers so foresightedly established, one would think that they are asleep at the helm. Here in America, we are so blessed to have the freedoms that those who came before us fought so valiantly for, and that which gives us that distinction which seems to separate Americans from the rest of the world. But Rome did not fall in a day.

The mayhem, the vitriol, the sleaze, coupled with the ongoing economic disaster less than a month before a presidential election is bringing out the true spiteful and vapid character of those very people we have sent to the Beltway to address our concerns. On the other hand, maybe this who we really are. Maybe that vitriol and the spite is reflected from us to -called ‘leaders’. There was never a truer axiom than “The People get what they deserve.” And what we deserve is slowly creeping out of the pit to be born.

Where have all the true heroes gone. We seem to have passed the Godly times and like Britain have entered into a twilight. Yes, we are in a twilight, we simply refuse to note it. Remember the dot coms? Warnings abounded that the bubble would never be sustainable, but we were all on a roll, creating ‘wealth’ out of nothing, easy money that begat even more easy money. Greedy investors with too much money on their hands spending billions on value inflated dot com ‘business’ endeavors who deservingly lost those foolishly invested billions overnight. After the fall, the government comes in and surprise! The taxpayers bail out the investors. Then came Enron, World Com, all run by greedy individuals with no regard of the thousands of employees who placed their trust that their livelihood would be sustainable in those companies, and others. Crash! Government comes in again. Remember the government does not own one dime. What is has it has is conscripted from you and I. Now comes the recent debacle. Government steps in, $700 billion, more will surely be added, but for now that’s what we have. This is insanity! Foreign investors are slurping up corporation after corporation that idiotically succumbed to the demon of greed. One does not dance with demons, but these ‘masters of the universe’ felt they were so invincible as to spit in the face of the devil. Well, now we understand that the devil gets his due.

So where have the heroes gone? They Are surely gone. I love to go down to Florida and to Disney’s Epcot Center if for nothing else but to go to the American Adventure. A very rousing and uplifting audio-animatronic journey. As you sit down before the show, you will notice 12 statues, 6 on each side of the theater. These are the “Spirits of America.” On the left side of the theater, from front to back, are Individualism, Innovation, Tomorrow, Independence, Compassion, and Discovery . On the right side of the theater, from front to back, are Freedom, Heritage, Pioneering, Knowledge, Self-Reliance , and Adventure. They are all life-sized, and are highlighted during the final sequence of the show, and nothing is more rousing as that final sequence as when that curtain rises behind those figures back-lighted in starlight and you begin to realize just how immense a debt we owe to those who made it possible to get to where we are today. If we allow this tide of unabated greed to carry us into the pits of socialism, which we sure are headed, a little at a time, then all those who died to preserve and carry us into the future will surely have died in vain. Those young men, past and present, who fought and died because they felt it was their ‘duty’ will surely have died in vain. We still have a few of those spirits but we seem to have forgotten most of them.

IN 1893, Katherine Lee Bates was on a prairie wagon with a group of teachers from Wellesley College visiting Pikes Peak. She wrote: “We hired a prairie wagon to get to the top. Near the top, we had to leave the wagon and go the rest of the way on mules. I was very tired, but when I saw the view, I felt great joy. All the wonder of America seemed displayed there with the sea-like expanse….

It was then and there as I was looking out over the sea-like expanse of fertile country spreading so far under those ample skies, that the opening lines of the hymn floated into my mind. When we left Colorado Springs the four stanzas were penciled in my notebook…The Wellesley work soon absorbed time and attention, the notebook was laid aside, and I do not remember paying heed to these verses until the Second summer following, when I copied them out and out and sent them to The Congregationalist, where they first appeared in print in July 4, 1895. The hymn attracted an unexpected amount of attention….In 1904, I rewrote it, trying to make the phraseology more simple and direct….the new hymn version appeared in the Boston Evening Transcript , November 19, 1904…

I guess everyone knows the first verse of Bates, “America The Beautiful”, but the ones that give rise to that upheaval of feelings is the third:

“Oh, beautiful for heros proved in liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life!”

Politicians love pulling up their soapboxes and extolling the virtues of these heroes past, and by implication, themselves. I ask you: do these people we have in Washington truly love this country more than themselves? Something is badly broken up there, and I honestly wonder if it can be fixed. We threw money again at this one, soon we won’t have any to throw.

So while I don’t want this to become a political advertisement, I must say that there is something about Sara Palin. Something different. Something people have yearned for. Something that resonates with the great unwashed, as Thomas Sowell so eloquently puts it. I don’t know what it is, and could be I am totally wrong, but I honestly believe that had she been on top of that mountain back in 1893, she would have written the same as Katherine Lee Bates. She has my vote, McCain does not, but I’m voting for Palin, so McCain gets the benefit. Far, far better than two socialists who are intent on selling us down the river.

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“I must say that there is something about Sara Palin. Something different. Something people have yearned for. Something that resonates with the great unwashed, as Thomas Sowell so eloquently puts it.”

Right on the dot! This is why I want Sarah Palin everywhere, on every shows, every rally, every TV program, every newspapers… everywhere! She can do miracles and she will, but McCain has got to let her be herself.

Settle down Craig, don’t let your optimism of Sarah Palin get Obama like. She cannot do miracles. What she can do is be herself and be informed and be smart at the things she says and does. There won’t be miracles, but there will be a better future if she and McCain get elected. Neither will be perfect, neither will do everything right, and both will have four years of fighting Democrats at every twist and turn and be hounded by the left wing media (paparazzi like) for that four years.

Every moment of their lives will be spent under more scrutiny than any President or Vice-President in history because the left wing media will be looking for everything they can find to make them look bad. This will make things tough and makes things hard to turn around. Perseverance, faith, determination, and hard work will get us through. If they are elected, the only miracle will be the turn around of our country, and I know they will do their best.

I completely agree with both this post and with what Wade has written. The representatives we elected and sent to Washington are there for themselves, for the sake of their parties. They wouldn’t dare agree to the decisions of the opposing side for the risk of losing their power within their party and for the risk of not being reelected. Partisanship is destroying us, and it doesn’t seem like it’ll stop anytime soon. I may not have been around that long to know our political history like the other great members on this site, but I know that this is not what our predecessors fought for. This is not the future they envisioned when they gave their everything for the sake of our country. And I have no doubt that this greed, this partisanship, this…selfishness is what our great forefathers had in mind. Where ARE the heroes, indeed.

And yes, the presidency will be very difficult for McCain/Palin because of the media. The media even have their own agenda to put forward when they go to the White House or when they report something – anything regarding the presidency or regarding politics. Damn partisanship has even ruined what it means to have true journalism.

There are heroes, but they aren’t names you would know. Teams have replaced individuals as things just cost more and are more complex. You’ll have to start reading scientific journals to see where the heroes of today are.

Troops are going back into battle even if they are missing a leg. Just 60 years ago, that wound could have either killed the trooper or left him crippled for life.

Just 20 years ago, a trooper had to still write to keep in contact with his family. Now a guy in Afghanistan or Iraq can pick up his camera phone and just dial home as if he was just a few minutes from home. Even the civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq rely on cell phones.

People are dedicated to better protective equipment that didn’t exist 10 years ago that has saved people and will continue to save people long after the creators have died of old age.

I don’t believe America is in a twilight. It is still a massive country and people need America. Even Venezula and Cuba need America. China and Russia aren’t buying U.S. bonds because they love us or hate us. They buy U.S. bonds because we are their safety net in case their economy implodes into the dark ages. They trust the U.S. more than they trust themselves. We could put 50,000 troops in probably 90% of the countries in the world and not be seen as invaders. There are guys in Lebanon dressing up what they think U.S. marines look like because they respect them. Civilians in countries run toward our soldiers to greet them instead of running away from them in fear. Iraqi civilians are probably still going to U.S. troops to handle domestic issues because they don’t trust their own government. Mexico calls the U.S. southern fence a humanitarian disaster/crime even though they treat the immigrants going into Mexico as scum. I once read Columbia has an unoffical monument claiming the U.S. is the promised land.

If you think $700 billion is big, picture this. The 2009 U.S. budget is $3.1 trillion with a $407 billion estimated deficit. In 2010, that would be $814 billion in unpaid bills if 2010 had the same budget. The U.S. war on terror runs $150 billion a year. the 4,000 some odd companies on just the NYSE are worth $30.5 trillion. The stimulus package this year was worth $250 billion and didn’t even really dent the economy. Last week on one day, the market lost $1 trillion in value. Even during the Great Depression the U.S. unemployment was 25%. One of the offsetting things to prevent that from happening now is the massive number of people, 76 million, turning 65 in the next 18 years. Even if the number of jobs shrinks, there will be a massive number of jobs still waiting for people.

“It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.” –Voltaire

People should not have been shocked that this was going to happen, it’s just a shock that people waited too long to react. People should have remembered the over leverage that caused the Great Depression. People should have been shocked in the 1990s with the problems of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. People should have been shocked as soon as wages were not beating inflation in the late 1980s and beyond. People should have been more shocked from the Savings and Loans scandals. people should have been shocked when the U.S. savings rate went negative 1% in 2007 (people were spending more than they were making). The news was out there that this was a fluffed up house of cards that was going to fail. The politicans didn’t need a degree in economics, they could have seen if the screaming in the wings was legit. What happened to proving an opponent wrong? Ross Perot was screaming this and he had simple charts to show off!), Ron Paul (so who are the crazies now?) was screaming this stuff, and some economists were screaming this stuff. These people were never checked out by the politicans. They were just labled loonies for saying what they were saying and then ignored. Just because somebody is crazy, doesn’t mean they are not telling the truth at times. Some people heard the screaming. I was reading the text of investors in Yahoo chat who were pulling out of the market a couple of years ago. There are billions if not trillions of dollars tied up by contrarian investors and that money is on the sidelines waiting for the blood on the streets. These guys will be buying all sorts of things at very steep discounts like people buying stocks during the Great Depression.

Don’t follow the pack, because they are nothing but a flock of sheep. Don’t listen to people that know nothing about the economy talk about the economy. It’s the things you don’t know that can wound or kill you. In Iraq it’s the IEDs that will get you. In, the U.S. it’s the IDK’s and IDC’s (I don’t know, I don’t care).

If you think these are dark times to remember, this will be forgotten in 5, 10 or 20 years like nothing had happened. The sheep will never learn, because if they did they would never have gotten into this mess. Heroes don’t think of themselves as heroes. They are labeled as heroes by dreamers and those dreams tend to be variations of the tall tale with a dash of truth.

Eve of destruction,
tax deduction,
solid gold in demand,
population out-a-hand,
suicide, to many bills,
hippies moving to the hills,
people all over the world are shouting ‘End the War.’

And the band played on.

Craig:
As I said, I did not intend the post to be political, simply could not resist throwing that in at the end.
Sara Palin is a motivation to vote for McCain a fortiori, as I likely would not vote had say, Romney, been on the ticket. The hypocrisy of such a ticket would simply be too great.

Palin likely will be relegated to the shadows as usual Vice-Presidents, brought out only to break ties and should McCain become incapacitated, sic. but I agree with you, until this election Palin should be Everywhere. I would much rather look at her than Biden, or Obama….or McCain.

Thank you for your comments.

Wade:
Hey, don’t deny Craig his optimism. 🙂 We need more of that!

It would be great if we could get the full might of that massive Christian Coalition that blew in the Republicans so many years ago, stunning the erstwhile Democratic congress. Reports of our demise are sadly premature. Will we have enough enthusiasm to make ourselves known again this election or will we stay home, allowing the Democrats to continue to rule the roost? They are out there, make no mistake, the problem is, the Republicans themselves taught them that Washington corrupts and where it took Democrats several decades to run up incomprehensible deficits, it took the Republicans only one decade to catch up. The Christian Coalition was silenced.

Words of wisdom. Such spirit has seen us through in the past and maybe it will continue to be our salvation if there will be any opportunity for the next generation.

Leah:
Thanks, Leah, a lot of truth there.
Why it has changed so drastically is due to the spoils to be had. The winners take their seats on the pinnacle of power in Washington and the losers go home.

Like it is said: “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” well let’s add a new slant to that quote: “Money and power corrupt, and control over absolute money and power corrupt absolutely.” well….maybe its a given since you cannot have one without the other…oh, well…

Gregory:
Thanks for your insight and your lengthy response. We are on the same page on a lot of points. I agree with you on many, maybe simply have a ‘generationally’ different perspective.

Is, say Bill Gates, a ‘hero’? Are those who established the internet (my apologies to Al Gore) heroes? I could go on, but my perspective of technology is that most advances have been in the name of capitalism and not that ‘denial of self for the benefit of all’, as corny as it sounds. Let’s see, i define a ‘hero’ as ‘a man distinguished by exceptional courage and nobility and strength; “RAF pilots were the heroes of the Battle of Britain” , etc. And I don’t mean the ‘hero’ so loosely given out today…sports ‘heroes’…rock ‘heroes’….puts a bad taste in my mouth. However, in general, i clearly see your point.

Maybe I am looking at the glass as half empty, but the dollar has to have some value for the amounts you mentioned to mean anything. What is was indicating is ‘sustainability’. Consider, the last decade and the economic failures that have put a massive load on the already unmanageable debt. These failures were ‘houses of cards’ from their inception and simply let those benefiting ride the wave as long as it continued. The trouble with riding a wave, however, is that it always breaks in the end. We base our entire economy on a volatile stock market subject to investor whim and a Congress whose sole objective in life is to feed itself.

Will this really be forgotten in 5, 10, 20 years? Possibly so. Like the Great depression, maybe it is simply a spike in history leading to peace, prosperity and the pursuit of happiness and decadence, until the next spike, or valley I might add. We will have to see, look at Britain, look at the USSR. We wake up one morning and the USSR is gone, vanished, as it it never existed. We simply have the total inability to see where we are on the time-line of history, and thus are destined to keep making the same mistakes over and over, all for love of money, until we run of money to throw at the problem.

You are right, they will never learn.

‘gererationally’ will the editors please change this to ‘generationally’…seemed i could not edit my post afterwards as it was ‘awaiting moderation’ and i have to go now….thanks Steve Rowland

Done, Steve… tho I suspect you just corrected yourself by the later post…

So where have the heroes gone?

Heroes? We have plenty of them. Could be your neighbor that risks his life to pull you out of your burning home, or the one that chases down the perp that just mugged you, or the one that stops the carjacker, or the one that does CPR on the stranger he finds laying in the street while everyone else walks by.

The appropriate question should be, “Where have the Patriots gone?” The ones willing to risk everything for country, God, and family. The ones willing to preserve our articles of freedom that many made sacrifices to write in the first place. Lee Iacocca wrote a book called “Where have all the leaders gone?” Maybe somebody needs to write, “Where have all the patriots gone?”

Wade:
I agree with your points and maybe I failed to make clear my intent: I was speaking of a ‘hero’ from the perspective of their selflessness towards their country. I guess I’m missing it but that’s what I meant. Politicians,soldiers, and the like, people we depend upon to have our interests in account every day they are ‘serving’. Of course, the servicemen do this, but it seems like the politicians feel that we should be thankful to have them there. Yes, we have a myriad of common heroes every day but do we have any Churchills in the wings?
I think you would agree that we can all be patriots when called upon to do so but many seem to take it to heart like many Christians
who praise God on Sunday but have to make a stop by the confessional on Saturday.

And Washingtons and Lincolns, Reveres, and Paynes, Pattons and Marshalls. And those of us who love our freedom. Heroes and patriots.

I am an American Soldier.
I am a Warrior and a member of a team. I serve the people of the United States, and live the Army Values.
I will always place the mission first.
I will never accept defeat.
I will never quit.
I will never leave a fallen comrade.
I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills.
I always maintain my arms, my equipment and myself.
I am an expert and I am a professional.
I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy, the enemies of the United States of America in close combat.
I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life.
I am an American Soldier.