the American Dream

The price of gas just reached another all time high. Where I live it’s hard to find octane 89 for less than $4.00 per gallon. In direct spending, the Iraq war has cost around $500 billion. Even the conservative projections see the long term cost exceeding a trillion dollars. We’ve lost the lives of over 4 thousand American soldiers. In a twisted effort to justify this immeasurable mistake, Bush is willing to sacrifice as many more soldiers as he can before leaving office. And the other day I saw a bumper sticker on a car (which was riddled with other right wing agenda stickers) which read Freedom isn’t free.

Now, I understand the point they’re trying to make with that. Never mind the fact that Iraq has NEVER been any kind of threat to our freedom — nor did they have anything to do with 9/11. But what the statement on that sticker really makes me wonder about is; does the person in that car think about that statement in a broader sense? Do they consider that overall it does in fact cost something to live in this country? And, logically so… It’s a gigantic country with what is likely the largest, most complex and efficient infrastructure of any country on earth. America quite literally is the land of opportunity and it’s a privilege to live here. Those of us who were born here tend to be the first to forget that fact. Far too many of us seem to have this completely unrealistic sense of entitlement. There’s no humility or gratitude left in the American Dream. — I want my milk and honey, on my street paved of gold! And God Damn You if you dare to TAX me for any of it!!!

You can see it on every level. In the office where I work I can overhear the phone calls of the customer service desk. The most consistent thing that I’ve observed about the complaint calls is that most people want to receive and use the product but they don’t want to pay for it.

I feel fortunate, grateful and privileged to live in America. But not so proud of it. Recent generations of Americans have done little to keep America living up to what it once was. As a nation, we find excuses to ignore environmental issues and we find excuses to condone torture. America used to have the moral fortitude to at least try to step up and set the higher standard. We've gone from being a truly respectable world leader to being an arrogant bully.

We have a long way to go, on a whole lot of levels. But as individual Americans, a nice start would be to see the American Dream rise above this arrogant belief that we’re entitled to something for nothing.

For the record

I'm a big fan of Jesus Christ.

This is a fact which is held true by my ability to distinguish some quite distinctive differences between Christ and Christianity.





"If Christ were here
   there is one thing he would not be — a Christian."


      —Mark Twain

“Godless” coins?

About this One Dollar piece
that lacks the phrase In God We Trust...

In a recent post I had my little Church and State rant, but I don’t mind touching on it again. Particularly in a case like this that is not so black and white. You could say that I have mixed feelings on the matter, but I’d categorize it as one of my "line item" evaluations of a not so simple issue.

Here’s the thing. The lack of separation of church and state is the principal cause of most of the conflict in the world, throughout history and to this day. Period. I am a very strong advocate of the enforcement of our constitutional separation of church and state. Yet, I am more passionate about the importance of not blaming God for religion. People make religions. Not God. That is why so many religions cause so many problems in the world.

So, I am neither offended by the idea of removing that phrase from our money, nor am I bothered by In God We Trust continuing to be printed on our money. I am truly indifferent to it, and think that anyone who is deeply invested in this issue on one side or the other is just being silly.

Currency is currency. It serves a practical purpose and is no more or less valid or valuable with or without a phrase about God printed on it. On the other hand, in terms of the concept of attaching any particular religion (church) to the state, the word God is actually ambiguous. All religions have a God or some Gods or some kind of deity that can in some way be legitimately referred to as their “God”. Hence, the use of the word God does not endorse one religion (church) or another; therefore it does not violate separation of church and state. So until they try to print In Jesus We Trust on American currency, this is a non-issue. In the mean time, I’d suggest diverting your energy to something that matters.

For the record

Fuck Nader

keeping score

Here’s a little snap shot — that sort of demonstrates how deeply out of touch the right-wing extremists are with the rest of America.

• On that persistent right-wing gutter politics effort to convince voters that Obama has connections to Muslim extremists; the most right-wing politician serving in Congress just made himself the poster boy of that smear campaign.



• John McCain keeps “waving the white flag” by telling the world that this great nation has been brought to it's knees and should be terrorized into voting for him.



• Since George Bush lost his Republican Congress and found out that he is no longer Dictator Bush, he’s been like a child having a tantrum with his veto stamp. His latest cast of that stamp told the world that the United State of America condones torture.



• Meanwhile, yesterday the Illinois congressional seat that was previously held by Dennis Hastert — the longest-serving Republican speaker in the history of the House — was won by a Democrat.

As some American politicians continue to tell the world that we are shallow, weak, and in shameless lack of a moral compass; the American voters have an entirely different message.
It would seem that "hope" is alive and well in America.