SPRING!

Take a drive around your neighborhood today and notice what is missing. Spring has begun to sprung just about everywhere and brought with it sunshine and birds singing and all the usual signs of the season. Baseball begins next week! Now, THAT is spring! It wasn't that bad of a winter but, no matter how cold winter was, there's just something about that rebirth that Spring brings that just makes a person feel good. I like it.

But, back to the drive and what is missing. Freedom is missing. This is painfully obvious. There are no burning buildings. No dead laying in the street. No roving bands of militia. All these, to some, are the harbingers of freedom and they are sorely lacking on this fine spring day. Is this the America our revered founding fathers envisioned for us? What the heck happened to their American dream?

Well, simply, it got misinterpreted. Somewhere along the line, the Declaration of Independence, The Bill of Rights and the Constitution all became as murky and open to interpretation as the Bible is for various peoples. While this has long been the case for fringe elements of our society like Supreme Court justices and people who wear tin foil hats, it seems to have become more mainstream and fervent now that we have a half black president in the white house. Some Americans feel this is the end of times and that America as we know it, is lost to us and the only way to get America back, is to make it look like Beirut on a Tuesday.

You'll probably miss that part as you stroll through the aisles of the Jewel today, planning a meal for the family tonight. Billy has soccer practice after school and Janie has band. Herb might have to work late- maybe burgers would be good. Don't forget a bottle of wine for the Henderson's this Saturday.

Wow. People like that really make some people sick! Doesn't that bitch know that America as we know it is being ripped apart by a communist/socialist/fascist/muslim/etc/fill-in-the-blank/nigger/messiah/president bent on enslaving us all!!?? Well, she's gonna be one of the first to go...because that bitch just doesn't get...WE ARE AT WAR!

Well, soon. Because, Goddamn it, you just can't have freedom without bloodshed, right?

Wrong. We've had freedom here for for a good long while and except for an unfortunate Civil War, 145 years ago, we've been free of American armies pitted against each other in the streets and fields of our nation. I wonder if other, less fortunate countries are jealous of this or if they think we are fools, pansies maybe.

There are 300+ million people in this country. I suspect that easily 10% are idiots. If my math is right, that means 3 million idiots walk amongst us, give or take a few thousand. Of those 300 million, 1% is seriously deranged. If they don't already live in the woods, stock-piling guns and ammo, stringing troutlines, preparing for Indian attacks, they WANT to live that way. Some really do think all Americans should live this way, as our founding fathers did (or, at least, allowed others to live) or so their interpretation of history goes.

300 million people all out hunting for dinner (with fully automatic weapons as God AND the Founding Fathers intended) each and every day. 300 million real Americans, living without government intervention. Fuck them building codes and seat belts! Ever notice that the Constitution mentions NOTHING about seat belts but EVERYTHING about LIBERTY? Or, maybe that's the BOR? I don't know. Like most democrats, these documents are on a roll in my bathroom. Not the actual documents mind you- the president himself gets those- but, replicas purchased during the last NPR pledge week.

Times are tough. This current recession is the worst we've had since The Great Depression. Unemployment is high, homes are being foreclosed on, many banks and corporations have failed. Yours truly isn't working anywhere near as much as he did 3 or even 2 years ago. Yet, life goes on very well here. There's no panic in the street. No government troops guarding major intersections. No check points. And despite the rantings of thousands of people with thousands of names on the internet, no need for such actions. Despite the war rhetoric of populists like Sarah Palin and whoever is running your local tea party, there is no need for troops to be called in.

Not yet, anyway. "They" are working on it, Sarah and Glenn and Ann and John Boner (sic). You know, in a country as great as this, finishing second in an election is not the worst thing that can happen. We've been doing it this way for a few hundred years and we've managed to do it without violent, post-election purges of the losers. Why anyone would want to now start with violent, post-election purges of the WINNERS is kind of silly. And un-American...

The current republican leadership, stung as they are by defeat, is giving way too much lip service to the rhetoric of war. Save that shit for football season where it belongs. You lost, get over it. Don't be against government when, once in power again, you will also govern. Republicans today are patriotically against big government and will continue to be until such a time as republican leadership once again makes it fashionable to be patriotically FOR government.

So, while you're shopping today at the Jewel or Kroger, enjoying this lovely Spring day, grown men and women in matching camo outfits are plotting to free you from servitude and your futile, un-American existence not by ballot but by bullet. I promise you, the founding fathers did not see THAT coming...