Stuff I don't want to hear anymore.
There are phrases and
idioms that become popular, last for awhile and then fade away. Take, for example, "political
correctness". This is a phrase
that seems to be steering us in the ways of speaking more gently, less coarse,
if you will. In actuality it is
shrinking our vocabulary because words that WERE descriptive of a person or an
event, are now politically incorrect. We
don't dare identify someone as being black, white, or indian...nope, they are
African-American, Caucasian, or Native American...and that is just plain
stupid. It would be pretty stupid of
me(and anyone else) to think that every black person in this country came from Africa. Oh sure,
maybe 7 or 8 generations back, but not now.
How many white people that you know came from the Caucasus
region? Native Americans...now THEY have
a legitimate claim to that, but when you grew up they were indians, and you
probably played cowboys and indians...they were indians in the movies too.
Over the years,
women have been called a whole bunch of names, and I mean words that you could
say in mixed company. They've been
skirts, frails, broads, dishes, and...well, you get the idea. It defined a woman because they WORE skirts,
they were considered "frailer" than men, usually had broader
rear-ends and they looked good. It was
more of a compliment than anything else.
Today, if you used any one of those words, and several others as well, you
might be on the receiving end of a lawsuit for defamation of character, or some
such rot. Men, on the other hand, seemed
to have been called men, or gents, since forever. We just don't seem to get the respect that
women do, and that's fine with me.
There's nothing I can find wrong with being called a gent, or a
male...unless you add the words "chauvanist pig" after it. I have been called that also, by the way.
"I don't
read books"...this is something that I simply do not understand. People will spend hundreds of dollars buy an
electronic device so that they can read the same information that they could
get from a very inexpensive newspaper, or a real book. In my personal library as I look at the
shelves, there's probably 200 books on all sorts of subjects. Growing up books were my ticket to adventure,
history, education, and if you can picture a kid under the covers, and using a
flashlight to see the word on the pages, that was me. Almost nothing escaped my reading, unless it
was really scientific stuff which was just too far above my childhood
mind. Today, to hear people tell me that
they don't read books is almost a crime, and in some countries, even now, to
have books IS a crime. It certainly was
in Germany
in the 1930's, and that country gave us some really brilliant minds.
Then there’s the people that say “I
don’t take any interest in politics”.
These are the types that are willing to go along with just about
anything that government does, because they don’t know any better. The facts don’t confuse them because the
facts are hidden in a volume of double-talk spouted by someone that really
doesn’t want you to know what they are really saying.
As an
example, there are people in government today who want to dramatically change
the words in the United States Constitution, and those changes would bring you
less freedom…unless you know about them you will find out that things have
changed and you wonder what happened?
Pericles,
way back in 430 BC said it and it’s still true today, "Just because you
don't take an interest in politics, it doesn't mean politics won't take an
interest in you.". Take a moment
and
think
about the ways that politics, or government, affects your life. Amazing, isn’t it?
Finally, I don’t want to hear anyone
say “America
sucks”. Memorial Day, which we observe
every year, is a testament to millions of Americans, living and dead, who
didn’t think that was a good thing to say.
Safe to say that there’s been many, many fights over that phrase, and
the person that utters it better be prepared to defend it, and themselves. For as long as anyone living can remember,
the United States has been the protector of freedom and liberty for those who
asked our help. Defeated enemies are now
our friends because they recognized what was brought to them. Unfortunately, there are those in the world
who will never know us as friends because of something that they heard, read,
or believe in…and that’s sad. The America
in which I grew up, and spent a major portion of my life defending, is
changing. The generations coming along
now will have to live with their decisions, or decide that this country is
worth living in, and
perhaps,
dying for. Think about it because YOU
have to live with it.
Larry Usoff, US
Navy Retired. www.AirHumanityRadio.net
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