Waxing Nostalgic

While I was home for Christmas, I pulled out the old photo albums (like I do every year). At once heartwarming, humiliating, hilarious and sad, the pictures gave a glimpse of that "life flashing before your eyes" moment. Amidst the many images in front of me were my Dad's relentless documentation of our annual family vacations.

On the road at four a.m., crouched in the back seat for a cross-country excursion usually meant many things: games, songs, books, fights, nausea and a constant battering of the single question, "are we there yet?". I would come out of my self-induced cocoon of make-believe to join in the inevitable game of "Mom, he's on my side/drawing a line down the middle of the backseat" with my brother. (Really, Mike, how did you put up with me?)

But through all of the bickering and car-sickness a strange and wonderful thing happened. I got to see America. Well, a lot of it. I remember the Liberty Bell, the White House, Mt. Rushmore, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, the Salt Flats, the Alamo, DisneyWorld, the beach, the ocean, the trees, the corn, the nothing in the middle, the desert, the mountains, the people and almost every ball park in between. Everything seemed so big and new and beautiful and far away. I was always very happy to come home, but each trip gave me more pride in my country. What a great place! America the Beautiful.

Of course now that I'm older I appreciate those trips more than I did at the time. I'm so glad my parents "made" us go and see and learn. I would've been happy at home hiding in my closet with a good book and a flashlight (yes, even in August). Now I see things differently. America seems so much smaller and, dare I say, ugly. I'm not only talking about the extensive damage we are doing to the country and planet environmentally. I'm talking about what we, as a people, are allowing to happen to our country. (Just when you thought it was going to be a nice blog with no politics...you don't know me at all, do you?) The hate, the violence, the lethargy, the gluttony and greed by all of us. It is destroying us. Look at how we are viewed by the world. We are no longer America the Beautiful; we are America the fat, lazy, spoiled rich bullies that hate each other and the world.

As you consider your ever-important vote this primary season, think about what you thought of US when you were young. Don't you wish we could restore that feeling of pride you felt when you were still required to say the Pledge of Allegiance even though you weren't quite sure what it meant?

I will leave you with someone else's views that reflect mine and that I hope you will reflect on too.

"Imagine an America that is once again seen throughout the world as a
beacon of hope and light, as an inspiration for human rights and
freedom, and as a liberator of the world from poisoned energy that
imprisons men and women everywhere, and ultimately endangers the very
existence of the world itself.

Imagine an American democracy that is greater than an exercise in
poll-taking, fundraising and the character assassination of fellow
Americans and becomes again a democracy in which politics is viewed as
a noble profession and Americanism is viewed as a call to share both
the sacrifice and the triumph, and young people are inspired to reach
for the stars in every endeavor in their personal and civic lives."

excerpt from The Hills' Pundits Blog - by Brent Budowsky
Oct 11, 2007