Fellow countrymen and women, I am sure you are as tired of the never-ending blue versus red political argument as I am. It is always about "us versus them"; "they are the devil incarnate"; "their president has sinister designs on the future of our country";
"all of our society's ills are their fault"; "our country would be so much better off if we were in power"; "they're a bunch of socialists/marxists" (so says the GOP about the Demos); "they're a bunch of heartless, fascists" (so say the Demos about the GOP); and on and on and on, ad nauseum.
Folks, if our country is to be saved from whatever undesirable end awaits it, it will be because enough of us "purples" said (or maybe yelled out) "Enough!" I consider the "purples", as I call those of us who are neither left or right-wingers, synonymous with what others have called "the sensible center". We need to be well-informed about what is going on in our country; we need to be savvy consumers of the news and the facts and figures that are said to pertain to the state of our nation; and we need to get involved. MOST OF ALL: We need to vote in unprecedented, huge numbers!
Can you imagine the positive change we could affect in the United States of America if voter participation among we purples increased to 80, 90 or 95%?! Now imagine if all of those voters arrived at their voting booths well-informed about the major issues of our day. We would see a revolution at the ballot box and in Washington that other countries can only hope to accomplish through force of arms!
That sort of revolution would go down in the history of our great nation as having saved it, just like the outcomes of the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War II, and the Great Depression are known by all to have saved our country from despotism, dissolution, slavery, despotism again, and socio-economic collapse. It is time for a new "Greatest Generation" to rise up and save our country from the greatest threat we have ever faced: ourselves - a population of people too apathetic, too ignorant, too self-focused and self-serving, and too resigned to America's decline; a population of what one political commentator calls "sheeple"; a population divied up into reds and blues, too stuck in their ways to collaborate and compromise - too sure of their rightness.
Yes, my fellow purples, it is up to us to be America's next greatest generation. I firmly believe the survival of our great nation - and I do believe it is still great and exceptional among all nations - depends on us! So join my blog, The Purple Rooster, to discuss and debate (always respectfully and politely) the great issues of our day and what we can do - each one of us - to become part of America's emerging greatest generation; a generation that destiny calls to save our country.
2 comments:
I don't know if you've seen 'The Newsroom' on HBO, but the opening monologue was one of the most inspirational I've ever seen. HBO’s Newsroom is Amazing: Opening monologue
It’s not the greatest country in the world, professor. That’s my answer.
[Addressing liberal] Cheryn, the NEA is a loser. Yeah, it accounts for a penny out of our paycheck, but he gets to hit you with it anytime he wants. It doesn’t cost money. It costs votes. It costs air time and column inches. You know why people don’t like liberals? Cuz they lose. If liberals are so smart why do they lose so goddamn always? [Addressing conservative] And with a straight face, you’re going to tell students that America is so star-spangled awesome that we’re the only ones in the world who have freedom? Canada has freedom. Japan has freedom. The UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Australia! Belgium! has freedom. So, 207 sovereign states in the world and 180 of them have freedom.
And yeah, you, sorority girl. Just in case you ever wander into a voting booth one day, there’s some things you should know and one of them is: there is absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we are the greatest country in the world. We’re 7th in literacy, 27th in math, 22nd in science, 49th in life expectancy, 179th in infant mortality, 3rd in median household income, 4th in exports. We lead the world in only 3 categories: Number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real, a defense spending - where we spend more than the next 26 countries combined, 25 of whom are allies.
Now, none of this is the fault of a 20 year old college student, but you nonetheless are without a doubt a member of the worst - period - generation - period - ever - period. So when you ask what makes us the greatest country in the world, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Yosemite?
It sure used to be. We stood up for what was right. We fought for moral reasons. We struck laws - we passed down laws for moral reasons. We waged wars on poverty not poor people. We sacrificed. We cared about our neighbors. We put our money were our mouths were and we never beat our chests. We built great big things and made ungodly technological advances and explored the universe, cured disease. And we cultivated the world’s greatest artists and the world’s greatest economy.
We reached for the stars. Acted like men. We aspired to intelligence - we didn’t belittle it, it didn’t make us feel inferior. We didn’t identify ourselves by who we voted for in the last election and, we didn’t scare so easy.
We were able to be all these things and do all these things because we were informed by great men - men who were revered.
First step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one. America is not the greatest country in the world anymore. Enough?
Excellent thoughts, Kelly. I agree that we are undoubtedly in decline. But the most important question for me is "Where is the best place in the world to live?" To that I would unequivocally say, "The United States". There is indeed much to be done to become great again. I would say that these days we are great in a residual, momentum kind of way - resting on our laurels. If greatness is measured only by the present, I also do not believe we are great. It will take another great generation to make us great again. Thanks SO much for your comment. Jim
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