This may not fit in perfectly with the You grew up in Fern Creek if scenario but, seeing as how I did grow up in Fern Creek and have been a resident, as of this Wednesday, for the past 55 years, I hope you will allow me say a few words about what its been like and cut me some slack and read my observations of life over the past half century. You might consider it a political statement and unworthy of this page, but I consider it a slice of life and my view on the world looking back at how it all took shape and how it shaped me over the course of the past 55 years. So, with that said...... I have so much to say this evening I dont know where to start. But Ill try. Wednesday I will be 55 years old. Born in 1959, I have lived in this city, Louisville, my entire life. And, over the course of my life I have watched as this country has slowly but surely declined to where it is hardly relevant in the world today. When I turn 55 this week I will be eligible to retire according to the union I work for, but doubt remains as to whether that will be a viable option. All of these things and more I will discuss in the paragraphs. below. This essay will be my take on the state of the planet in general and on my own life in particular. So, here we go. Looking back to the end of the Second World War, this country, the United States Of America, basically had the world by the balls. Europe was a wasteland, large portions of the Soviet Union and its member states had been decimated by the Nazis, Imperial Japan had been forced back across the Pacific and had two cities completely obliterated by atomic bombs not to mention the rest of their country being destroyed by conventional bombing campaigns, China after fighting off the Japanese was embroiled in a civil war that would last for several more years, and the world as a whole was tired and beaten after six years of total war that cost some fifty million lives. The United States stood alone on the world stage as the single, virtually untouched, super power that exhibited the most productive and the most prosperous workforce on the planet. We had, as Americans, a standard of living that remained unchallenged for the next fifty years. However, slowly but surely, it was all wasted, squandered, and finally simply given away by the people we call our elected officials. We went from being the most powerful nation on the face of the earth, both feared as well as respected, to becoming almost an afterthought when it came to what could be termed third world countries that ignored our power and our prestige because we no longer acted like the super power we pretended to be. It didnt begin all of the sudden, but once it did begin it took on a life of its own that fed upon itself and diminished our standing in world affairs. Looking back to 1979 and the so-called hostage crisis in Iran that started under the complete incompetence of the Carter Administration it has evolved into a shadowy group known today as ISIS that takes pleasure in sawing the heads off of American journalists that are in the Middle East simply covering news stories. If anyone other than Jimmy Carter had been president back in 1979, there would have been columns of helicopter gunships flying in at tree top levels and blowing the living shit out of half of Tehran. Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, any and all of them would not have allowed fifty Americans to be held for 444 days after a group of radical students seized the embassy, but Carter wanted to negotiate with them and gain their release. 444 days later, after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as President Of The United States, the fifty hostages were released within hours. Why? Because Reagan, rightly or wrongly, was portrayed as a strong leader and not an impotent politician. Even if some or all of those fifty hostages would have perished, I think Americans at the time would have realized that a few dozen dead Americans is not worth sacrificing a nations destiny. Carter never understood that fact. He did more over those 444 days to undermine America and American power than anyone prior to Barack Obama. Carter laid the foundation for what was to come decades down the road. Today American politicians talk about negotiating with the government in Iran. Many forget that the ones in power today in Iran are the same that were holding 444 American hostages decades ago. And, they know from past experience, how we, as Americans, will play their game. If we were as smart as we think we are, wed step aside and let Israel blow them to smithereens like they will sooner or later anyway. This nation today has surrendered its claim as an independent nation. We allow tens of thousands of illegal aliens to cross our borders with virtually no downside risk to them. If anything, we encourage them to overrun our medical system, our educational system, our welfare system, and promise them at the end of the day their chances of being deported back where they came from are almost non-existent. A nation ceases to be a nation once it surrenders itself to outside forces and that is basically what we have done. No where else on earth would this be permitted to take place, be we, as a loving nation, do so on a daily basis and have now for years. And who pays? You, the working class American tax payer thats who. Another great plague upon this country is allowing politicians to debase and for all purposes totally ruin the financial system this county was built upon. When Richard Nixon took the country off of the gold standard back in the early 1970s, that made it possible for the government to print an endless supply of valueless currency backed by absolutely nothing. The Treasury Department could announce in the morning that those dollars in your pocket are nothing more than colorful pieces of worthless paper with portraits of dead presidents and numbers on them and there is nothing you, or anyone can do, to stop them. But, by printing trillions upon trillions upon trillions of useless dollars, the government has made it possible to further the welfare state and provide free EBT cards, free health care, free cell phones, free this and free that for tens of millions of people who never have, and never will, work a day in their life. There are three groups of people in this nation. One group that expects you to provide everything for them free of charge and for the rest of their natural life. One group that thinks they do the work when in reality they sit back and watch the third group that actual does everything there is to do in this once great country. And all the while the government makes it even harder for them to do what they do because of the endless restrictions placed upon them. We are told were we can park our cars, how much salt we should have in our diets, how much Coke we can buy at one time at a restaurant, how much water the tank on our toilet can hold, what type of light bulbs we can plug in, and so on. The list goes on forever. We are expected to be more and more productive and more and more cost effective, and in the meanwhile the police can write you a ticket for $200 while youre speeding your way to work trying to keep pace or the oil companies can charge you four dollars a gallon to fill you car as youre doing it. We have become little more than mindless zombies working for the man who controls every aspect of our lives. America has become a country of those that have and those that dont, and the amount of those that dont vastly out number the amount of those that do. I love listening to Dave Ramsey on the radio at times, especially when someone calls in to whine about their hard times and how they are only making $200,000 a year and barely scraping by. Dave feels their pain and tells them how to better their pathetic little lives while the average American family brings in around $50,000 a year and no one gives a crap about them. And then you have the millionaires and billionaires that have tax accountants and tax lawyers who find ways to pay next to nothing when it comes to their taxes. As they then complain about the $7.25 minimum wage and how raising it will bankrupt the country. Some people get everything for free. Some people have everything they will ever need. Most people simply exist and try to find ways to survive without starving to death in the meanwhile. And surviving becomes harder with each passing day. It doesnt surprise me anymore when some disgruntled employee goes ape-shit and sprays two dozen people with a Kalashnikov. In fact, Im surprised it doesnt happen more based on what people put up with these days. I have had it with America. Like a line from a famous movie, This used to be one hell of a great country. Well, the optimum phrase there is ..... used to be. It no longer is. Politicians have succeeded in ruining this country over the last half century and we, as Americans, have allowed them to do it unchecked. I remember once when the question was asked would you rather be part of an empire in its ascendancy or in its decline. Today you have no choice. The decline has been with us now for decades and I see absolutely no change in that status coming down the pike. The unrest in the Middle East today is nothing new. Those people have been killing one another for thousands of years. The new thing is that Americans are now the target. In days gone bye, even the factions at war thought twice before killing an American. Today it is like a sport. The more Americans you behead, the more time you get on YouTube. Loop off a head here and a head there and youre a celebrity. This is what we have become. A nation that is no longer feared is a nation that breeds a world that becomes increasingly more dangerous by the day. We like to try and believe we are dealing with civilized human beings. We are not. And as long as we ignore that fact, we will, as a nation, continue to be undermined and marginalized on the world stage. And as long as we have politicians that ignore history and give away all of the gains our forefathers fought and died for over the past 235 plus years, the weaker and more insignificant we become. So, Wednesday I will be 55 years old. A lot has changed over the course of the past half century. And, from the vantage point of most ordinary Americans, not for the better. If I was to ask for one thing for my birthday it would be his. For Americans, and the people that love this country and respect its historic past and astounding accomplishments, to think about this. Think about where we are today and how we got here. And then ask yourselves this. Did it have to be this way? Or are we just that stupid? Robert Zoeller
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 23:10:37 +0000
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