patriotism

i'm sorry.. this post will be very confusing-i have no shift keys anymore and i'm such a lazy beast i don't want to bother turning off the computer and fighting to install the new one dad found in the 'computer room'.

my topic of the day popped out at me while watching a film from the late 1930's called 'born to sing'. i only caught the last 15 minutes or so, but i don't think i can forget the message.

a group of teenagers put on a show. one of the lead performers, a pretty girl with a bell-like voice and hair piled on top of her head like a hayloft in a barn, had a father lately released from jail. he grinned like an imbecile and stood up front when she started to mention him to the rest of the audience-mostly all parents.

the daughter explained how her father served his time merely to be able to hold his head up in public. he had paid his debt. in his letters, he always wrote [approximately this] 'there's something in america that makes a man inwardly good.'

then they performed a song the father had written, called 'the ballad of americans'. in a solemn deep voice with a choir of people dressed every which way, they sang of the dreams of the founders of our country, and how american ideals are not always the popular idea, they were upheld by some great men and some ordinary ones. farmers, writers, jews, negroes, all are americans and all therefore inherting the good and the beautiful name of american.

while listening in awe of this amazing song, and wondering why i had never heard it before, i realized-this is what america is missing. nothing can save us now except patriotism. yes, some politicians might be corrupt. yes, there might be illegal immigrant problems. yes, there is a lot of crime. yes, we lack morals. but- every year in our history had problems such as these.

how could the people in the 1860's survive and give their lives, and the lives of their brothers and fathers and lovers, if they didn't believe they were standing up for something bigger than themselves. if they all started to bicker about how bad the decisions of mcclellan for example, were, the war would have been lost. or never faught at all. the slaves would continue serving, men would continue arguing.

if only we could look over ourselves, and realize only through supporting the parts of our government and society that are good, maybe, just maybe, we can step over this decade's problems and prepare for the next decade with the confidence that comes with survival.

Another week...

Yet another week is in the making. One made much harder through missing an entire week of school. What happened to the old days when kids attended school as a luxury, not by law, and not at the expense of their families and homes?

There may be a ‘no child left behind’ law… but what about the students who dream of excelling. Why are high school students required to take eight credits of science in four years? Certainly being well rounded is a praiseworthy goal, but haven’t we all suffered through the basics the past eight years of elementary school-or is that proving our elementary teachers fail to lay a broad basis where students are to build on their interests and their future careers. That might enable college graduates to already know what they want to master in, saving money, and time when they leave college. The French are required to choose their main interest at the end of high school, why is America so slow to recognize kids’ talents and put them in the spotlight where they can learn, someday having excellent careers they love-not jobs they have to do everyday they hate.

No one can be a master at every dog-brained subject we are ‘required’ to take to graduate, but they have higher aspirations; they want to master a skill, or a subject, devoting their time and energy to the pursuit of a better understanding of a part of life that is important to their hearts, maybe not just the college entrance requirements.

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But…there are no masters these days. But that’s another ranting subject for tomorrow. I have a big day ahead of me. You’d be surprised how much dead weight work can accumulate in a mere four days.

Friday

Well, for my first post this won't be much of a zinger, particularly since I have nothing to say. My goals for this blog is to communicate my ideas and insights and respond to other thoughts of bloggers while maintaining a literary aspect.

Hope that makes sense. If not, it doesn't matter much since I doubt anyone is reading this first post anyway.