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This is the Eye of Grace. This is where the world is set straight before your simple minds. This is where the shit hits the fan.
You are nothing without me.
The Dead Art of Rebellion
(4th of July Contemplations)
As you sit there today on your checkered blanket, today, munching on your blistered hot dog and rinsing it down with a pint of Sam Adams - are you paying proper tribute to what this day actually means?
Did the Founding Fathers put their lives on the line so you could sit there with potato salad stuck in your beard and with Wal-Mart wine stains on your shirt?
In a way, yes… In some sick twisted way you actually epitomize what the Old Wise Ones set out to do; make a better America for all – free in spirit and body, rich in life and liberty.
They threw the English Dogs out on their arses and stood up for themselves, proclaiming independence once and for all. They gave birth to a whole new country, delivering it into an uncertain but exciting future, by taking charge of its governing and by assuming responsibility for its people. Never again would an American man or woman bow down to social injustices or a distant government with its own agenda.
Americans are strong, true and free, and not at all afraid to step up to the plate and voice his or her opinion. Americans are the ones to stand up in a time of crisis, or confusion, and say “There are leaders and there are followers! Follow me!” After all, a true American has rebel blood flowing through his/her veins like wildfire! It’s a birthright that comes with the territory.
All hail the American rebel!
Is that you?
Does that description fit you like a glove?
Or are you so full from all the corn bread and steak that you can’t move? All this rebel shit can wait, right?
Are you so taken care of in this cuddled society that you are afraid to make waves when you see something you don’t like, in fear of having all that other good stuff taken away from you?
Do you happily put your trust in a President that you would never buy a used car from, if he was running the car-lot on the corner instead? Do you confuse patriotism with blind unconditional faith in your government, when they in actuality are hired to work for you instead?
Do you think that criticizing a social wrong, or complaining about taxes, makes you un-American?
If all (or any) of the above applies to you, then you are in fact a sad fucking excuse of an American, and you have in actuality betrayed the original spirit of what drove America to stand on its own feet to begin with.
Let me explain this to you…
The American Way is not to conform to society, but to make society conform to you.
The American Way is to speak up when the Big Man is pissing down your back and tries to convince you it’s raining.
The American Way is to be on top of what’s going on in the White House and to question our leaders’ judgments, especially in important decisions.
The American Way is to stand up and take responsibility for the world in which you live, and to take charge of the way any problems in that world should be solved.
We have a democratically elected president, and a likewise democratically selected congress… They work for you, and they answer to you. Not the other way around. To call them on their shit is exactly what your role in this society is, otherwise you are letting them get away with murder, and let’s face it… we know they already are.
Democrats or Republicans in the house… it doesn’t matter. These guys would sell your baby into white slavery after kissing it on National Television, if it meant they would secure a place in the upper hierarchy of political power. These are the people who don’t think twice to start a war, sending your sisters and brothers to die, to get elected. You think they have scruples? You think they really give a shadow of a fuck about you and your rights? If they suck your ass enough, maybe you will vote for them again. That’s about it. Other than that, you don’t exist to these fucks.
I know I am talking over your heads, sounding like some radical armchair-terrorist nut, so let us put our dunce caps on and break it down. (Not that you’re dumb or anything, just special.)
Let’s say you own a house with a big ass backyard. You feel that you need to hire on a gardener to take care of this mess, since you are not equipped to handle it on your own. You find “Honest Harry’s Garden and Stuff” in the yellow pages, and one week later his team is in your backyard working like bees so you will hire them for the next week. You are very impressed with the way they get the job done so you make a deal to keep Harry on for 6 months.
The next week you come home to find only half the people from the week before working. One guy is smoking a joint (not inhaling) on his little tractor, another guy is leaning against his rake while chatting with the neighbor MILF and Honest Harry himself is nowhere to be seen. Well, they eventually finish up – albeit rather sloppily so – and you make a mental note to speak to Harry next week about it.
Next week rolls around and this time only one guy shows up… drunk. He makes a few leisure laps on his big mower, taking out your flower bed in the process, and then passes out behind the shed.
This pisses you off. You have a goddamn contract for crying out loud! You get Harry on the phone and tell him you want some goddamn quality work next week, or he’s off the job.
Next week you are awakened by the thunder of heavy machinery crashing around in your garden. You peak out between the blinds to see how huge tractors pull up old oaks by the roots, and then stick a palm tree in its place. Your flower bed is burnt to ashes and then re-seeded with dandelions. Your shed is knocked down and a Wal-Mart sun-dial is put up instead.
You rush out to find Harry, just as the last of the workers finish up in your yard and start rolling onto your neighbor’s property instead. Here he comes, gliding down your street in a black Town Car – grinning like a goddamn shark. He steps out and walks up to you, golden cuff links gleaming in the sun. “Heya there, old pal! See? We whipped this place into shape huh?”
Before you have a chance to say this is not what you wanted or signed up for, Harry fishes an envelope out of the pocket and presents it to you with a wink. “Don’t worry, kid. It’s all good! This is kinda what you hired us for. Let us pros do the work, aye?”
With that he climbs into his car and peels out, waving out the window, leaving you with the bill for the total remodeling of all the gardens on your block.
What would you do? Sue, for the chance of being on Judge Judy and get compensated for pain and suffering?
The American Way is to get in your car, chase him down, push him off the road and make him eat that bill, shit it out and then eat it again.
Why do you let your government get away with the same thing, even on a much grander scale?
Nobody speaks for you but you. Politicians are elected, by you, to make your voice heard in Congress and the Senate, but if you don’t speak that voice to begin with, they kinda do what they want instead. Think of them as the bored Cuban gardeners you hired to take care of your backyard, and think of the President as Honest Harry sending you the bill while fucking up your lawn.
You are America, not the President or Congress. You!
To speak against the government, be it democratic or republican is the American Way.
Now get back to the hot dogs and the potato-on-a-spoon races, and let’s change the world tomorrow instead. No, wait… Tomorrow we’ll all be hung-over.
How is Wednesday for you?
Me neither.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
Let’s just end this with some quotes from some American Fathers, past and present:
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
(Theodore Roosevelt)
"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President."
(Roosevelt again...)
"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism."
(Thomas Jefferson)
"Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionist and rebel men and women who dare to disssent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion."
(Dwight D Eisenhower)
"The sharpest criticism often goes hand in hand with the deepest idealism and love of country."
(Robert Kennedy)
"Without debate, without criticism, no administration and no country can succeed -- and no republic can survive."
(John F Kennedy)
“I tried marijuana once. I did not inhale.”
(Bubba Clinton)
“Not in French, nor English, nor Mexican”
(George W Bush)
~ The Eye of Grace ~
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