I grew up in the fifties and sixties, and I spent a lot of time at school under my desk, hunkered down with my arms over my head. No, I wasn’t that shy, although not far from it. That was our standard emergency position. Be it earthquake or atom bombs, whenever we heard the sirens sound we hit the floor and assumed the position, which was supposed to protect us from all harm. Our desks, you see, were make of super strong materials and could withstand anything, even an atomic blast. At least that’s what we were told, and that’s what we believed.
We were so afraid the USSR was going to start launching bombs at us any day, and we never knew when we left for school in the morning whether we’d ever see our parents again, because God only knew what they’d use to hide under since they didn’t have the standard school desk at home or at work. Is it any wonder we grew up to be so unsure of the future that we learned to live for today and forget about tomorrow? Yes, the Free Love generation that believed you should do whatever felt good and not regret it was born of the cold war mentality this country had.
We hated the Soviets. We feared them, too. We knew they were just minutes away from trying to take us over, that any day we’d see the bombs start to drop on us, and the mushroom clouds would obscure the sun. If you ever saw the movie “Red Dawn”, with Patrick Swaze, then you know what our fears were each and every day of our young lives. We were sure it wouldn’t be long before the Rooskies would be here, taking over the country, or trying to. They simply counldn’t stand freedom.
We fought against their totalitarianism long and hard. We knew how they worked. They hated any country that thought differently than they did, and felt they had to stop them in any way possible. That’s how they got to be the Soviet Union in the first place. A country didn’t like their way of doing things, didn’t think Communism was the way to go, and wouldn’t bow down and do what they were told, so the Commies would gang up and overrun that country, sucking them into their Union and not letting them go. The best day in the life of this country during my lifetime was when the USSR dissolved and all those countries were allowed to be themselves again.
Now, you would think that, since we spent so much time, energy, and money defeating these guys that we would never consider using their tactics, wouldn’t you? But that’s simply not true. We didn’t like the way Saddam was running Iraq so we invaded, and we’re still there, trying to get the best of them, with very little luck. Oh, we say we’re not there to take them over, but I see very little difference, since it stands to reason if the new government doesn’t go our way and goes back to the old way, we’ll be right back in there, doing it all again. I hope not, but unless we get the war mongers out of the White House and Congress and keep them out, that’s what we’re going to get.
But that’s not the worst part of what we are doing now that we’re the only Super Power left in the world. No, we are determined to have everyone who considers themself to be our friend do exactly as we say, and if they don’t, we are quite willing to turn on them on a dime and make them pay for their impertinence. Case in point: France.
France has been our friend almost from the first, and our beloved national symbol, the first one seen by so many new people coming here for a better life, was made and given to us by….France! The Statue of Liberty. But how quickly we can turn on our good friends when they don’t do what we want them to. France decided there was no reason to invade Iraq, and they have paid for it ever since. Now, they are a soverign nation, just as we are. That gives them the right to decide what they want to do, right? I mean, we certainly don’t want anyone telling us what we have to do. But it seems that right is ours alone, while everyone else must follow our plans or suffer the consequences.
Some people have been making France pay for their independent feelings ever since they first told us “no thanks, we’d rather not get into that”. A Congressperson with more gall than brains even started a movement to ban the name French Fries from America’s favorite potato snack, and make them Freedom Fries. And instead of laughing at the fool as any thinking person would, a lot of Americans went along with it. Can you imagine? Just how stupid, childish, churlish, and selfish can we get? It’s ridiculous.
Now, I’m sure you’re wondering what got me started on this tack today. Well, I’ll tell you. I had to run some errands today and while doing so I followed a pickup out of a store parking lot that had a bumper sticker on it reading “Boycott France!” As there was a longer than usual wait before we could pull out of the parking lot and go our seperate ways, I had a long time to study the bumper sticker and reflect on it’s message, and I simply didn’t like it. I thought it was childish and moronic, so I came home and wrote this rant.
My wish is that we could move past all this. I mean, we’ve learned that the French were right, more or less, in their belief that there was no imminent threat from Saddam and sanctions should be continued, along with more inspections. Those things HAD worked, according to the people who studied it, as Saddam had not been able to rebuild his armies or his WMD programs, he wasn’t a threat to his neighbors or anyone else, and there were no Al Queada training camps in Iraq. Yet we still want to punish them for having the cahones to say “no” to us. I simply can’t believe it.
We hated the Soviets for their bullying ways, yet now that they are effectively gone and over with, we seem to be taking their place in the bullying area. I, for one, am upset and ashamed about that. We aren’t the only country in this world, and we don’t have the right to act as if we are. We wouldn’t want any other country telling us what to do, especially when it comes to putting our own people in harm’s way, so if we are truly the Christian nation we claim to be we should live by God’s own rules, one of which tells us to do under others as we would have them do unto us.
We should be ashamed of ourselves for deserting our Freedom-loving roots and turning to the Dark Side. In other words, we have become the enemy. We are exhibiting the worst of the old USSR standards in our own dealings with others by demanding total obedience to us and our wishes, or else. We are heading down a path that will only put a larger target on our back, and we are making even more enemies of people who are only too willing to try for that bullseye.
I, for one, do not want to go back to the days of my youth, when my days were tempered by worry about whether or not we would even see the sunset because of the enemy who wanted us gone at all costs. And I certainly don’t want to be seen as part of a band of bullies who are willing to punish anyone who doesn’t want to do as we say. I just want to be America, Home of the Brave, Land of the Free, and live my life out knowing we have lived up to the promise this country has always held out to the rest of the world. Is that too much to hope for?
