What a beautiful summer we are having. Warm muggy days and the temperatures are beginning to slide towards the mid-nineties slowly but surely, but here it is the 4th of July and the mornings are heavenly and the evenings softly sweet and the nights are still cool and nice to be out in, especially when you realize summer has been with us for almost 2 weeks. Im sure we will soon be experiencing the raging Oklahoma summer heat soon, but I am certainly enjoying the gorgeous weather we are having while it lasts. Another 4th of July is upon us. This one will be the 238th one since we declared our independence from Mother England. We have a lot to be thankful for and a lot of people to thank. We have a messy nation, filled with a very diverse group of citizens and it is getting more diverse even as I write this in so much as within the next couple of years the majority of our citizens will no longer be white. That doesnt mean of course that Caucasians wont still be the largest segment of our society it just means that our minorities are now the majority overall. We are after 238 years, finally realizing that this nation that was founded on the principles of all are created equal, will now be more like it was originally intended it to be, a coat of many colors. Of course we have people who dont want to acknowledge that and who seem to want to take us back to them good old days that were good for some, somewhat good for some and not very good for a lot of others. We always tend to remember times past as if we were looking through a prism that is filtering out all the bad things and letting us see only what we want to see or remember. I remember days past fondly, however I also remember that they werent always the best of times and I definitely am not ready to go backwards and relive those times because we cant go back and filter out what we didnt like. The past wasnt a utopia in which only good things happened. Going back to those times isnt something that anyone should wish for because not everything was good about them good ole days. Change is the hardest thing we have to face in life and it is sometimes not what we want it to be. In fact it seldom lives up to our utopian expectations and so we long for them good ole days. Yes there were some good in them old days. But do I want to go back to having to chop cotton in 105 degree temperatures? Do I want to go back to getting up at 5 in the morning to drive a tractor plowing a 500 acre field until 9pm at night with only a short break for lunch? Do I want to go back to milking cows every morning and every night, slopping hogs, feeding chickens as they all raise the dickens? No! Why would I? Sure it gave me a work ethic I am proud of. It was hard work and I learned early just how hard it was. And yet I had some fun times and I even had some fun while I was working. But let me tell you, right now is much more fun than those times were. Yes I remember them good ole days, but I remember they were good and they were also not so good. I remember being made fun of because I was a Native American. I remember being denied a hair cut because they thought I was a Mexican. I remember be called names because I was poor and wore hand me down clothes. Do I want our country to go back to times like that when people decided they didnt like you by the color of your skin? No Way! This is America and we arent a perfect nation but we have (to use the old feminist battle cry) come a long way baby. And I for one dont see any reason for us to go backwards. We still have a long ways to go to have equality for all and we still have people who want to control every aspect of our lives but them good ole days were not nearly as good as some people like to remember. We have a lot of work to do to get to a time where we can say Dr. King your dream has come to fruition we have reached that mountain top. There are people out there still who are erecting roadblocks in our path but as Yogi Berra said, It aint over till its over! And it aint over yet. We shall continue to overcome and one day say to our founders we have finally formed a more perfect union where every one counts and none too much. Happy Birthday America! The Dream Is Still Alive! Bob Bearden
Posted on: Fri, 04 Jul 2014 01:12:20 +0000
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