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The 4th of July: A day of reflection on America’s past, present and futureJuly 5th, 2008
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As we go into the 232nd year of our nation’s birth, we are faced with an inordinate amount of negative news that takes away from the pleasures and prosperity of being American.
Fuel and food prices are rising daily. Wage deterioration and job losses are consistently highlighted on the tube. Energy conservation and constrictions, environmental issues and policies and safety and security strategies are, in essence, all tied together by the fact that we, as human beings, have only this one world, and it is not unlimited in resources, but it is boundless in the harm it can do to us, if we allow it.
We are also reminded of these matters by the presidential election of 2008. A race highlighted by the 1st woman and 1st African-American to realistically run for the highest office in the land. A political race with a man known first as a 5 ½ year veteran of a Vietnam prison camp, then as the oldest man to contend for the 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue address.
As this takes place, in the distant backdrop comes the idea of sports. The way many escape their problems and woes of 8-6 workday, complaining spouses and children, overbearing bosses and unhelpful nosey neighbors, and the fact, this world is perceived as worse than the world of our childhood, or our father’s childhood. In verity, it is only the changing faces of leadership and altered ways to communicating that may be at the crux of this worsening outlook we perceive.Poetic our forefathers were.
But even these sports have gone astray in our minds.
The athletes seem ever more jaded – with the moronic media and money made fueling their contempt for us, the fans – and their gloss and glimmer is faded before we ever get to know them. The scandals, gassed up by online sites, radio blowhards (Rush Limbaugh as a well-paid version of this group) and the Extremely Stupid Pundits of News (ESPN) who drive recklessly, all over the ‘free’ airways, bastardizing the concept of ‘a scandal’ while in search of some mythical creature called: The Truth.
Amoral ownerships require new branding of their stadiums, new revenue streams (from that branding) and shameless promotion of those well-paid jaded athletes that are endemically tied to those scandals aforementioned. These owners will threaten to ‘take their team and go elsewhere’ if they do not receive new stadium deals on the taxpayers’ dole. Hundreds of millions (or more) spent on luxury palaces where, if a typical fan making under $50,000 a year comes, they will be lucky to visit once in a decade. But that’s American Capitalism buttressed by socialistic bailouts for the wealthy. And the battle of the billionaires and millionaires wages on the breaking backs of cup-of-Joe America, who clocks in and out for dollars these men wouldn’t bend over to pick up.
A place where a mighty Casey would strike out, bearing the weight of all failures on his broad shoulders.
America once had broad shoulders – now wrecked by the frivolity of politics, backroom dealing and undermining the American Dream for a quick sawbuck – but she is now in the midst of a maelstrom of her own unfortunate making. The debt outweighs the equity built. The infrastructure of morality, decency, kindness and common sense has all but been eroded to the point of inoperable and unjustified existence. The ill designs of men have turned markedly adrift and astray from the altruisms and protestations of our forefathers.
Yet, we have seen this all before in various incarnations throughout history (going back most logically to the Roman Empire.) That a society reaches a point where to go forward it must throw off the shackles of injustice and inequality.
We should remember most vividly our Declaration of Independence.
In 1775, as colonial America would begin their fight for independence at Lexington and Concord, we felt these truths are self-evident: that all men were created equal; that all men deserved life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that governments derive their powers from the consent of the governed; that when a long train of abuses and usurpations evinces a design that reduces us to absolute Despotism, it is our right, our duty, to throw off such government and provide new guards for our security.
Evincing a design of a new America is one that will require many, many millions to participate. To accomplish this feat of revamping our lives and securing our futures requires such sacrifice that has not been seen in several generations. This bold concept, using the innovative spirit of America, has to take hold sooner, not later. Time is not on our side.
We have to be the Americans of ideals and dreams, of sweat and blood, of clear vision and utter determination. We the people must take back the reins of destiny of this country. We must mold our future in the widening prospects seen in 1776, but leave behind constraints in ideas, justice and circumstances foisted in that time. We are a different world, for sure; but we are much the same, in operation.
But from the best ideas and hard work, we can be all that our forefathers hoped for in their writings.
We can be independent, secure, stable and fair-minded. We can lead a world that needs leadership in these dangerous and volatile times. We can provide the direction that is so often missing. And be the steadfast steward to the living concept that was founded on July 4, 1776 in the Declaration of Independence and enforced in the United States Constitution.
From those measures and methods, our enduring play and love of sport can continue to be a happy by-product of equal prosperity and unwavering social justice.
Happy 4th of July!!!
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