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quakerjoe · 7 years

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A CUPPA JOE for Independence Day 2017

Happy 4th of July to all my followers here at Quaker Joe! As I sit in my flat in upstate Vermont, I can see over the tree line the fireworks going off over Lake Champlain and I begin to ponder things about this country that I love so much. Sure, I’m a right bit pissed off at this nation as a whole at present, but this is part of the dichotomy of life. If you’ve ever been royally pissed at your parents or children or spouses or somebody you love, then you can understand why I rail on sometimes against the United States of America. I’ve had people accuse me of hating it, sometimes citing the ol’ bullshit line of “Love it or Leave it” which only makes me want to get more involved with projects finding a way to reach through the internet to slap the living shit out of someone. C’est le Guerre.

I got to thinking a bit about what “PATRIOTISM” means. Clearly it means a lot of different things to everyone. Some of these definitions are radically different, evidently. For some, “Patriotism” seems to mean something akin to being one’s duty to hoard cash, get rich, and screw everyone else. To some, it means being anti-government at all times, regardless of whether the government is good or not. To others, it means being responsible for one’s own self but it could include taking care of those around you, and sometimes watching them drown because you feel that THEY are not being responsible. Some see patriotism as a sort of nationalism or being prideful towards the US regardless of how good or how shitty the place is. To cheer “USA! USA! USA!” all the time and put “Support the Troops” crap all over the car, even though as a nation we’re academically tanking (and celebrating the fact that we, as a people, are getting progressively dumber and dumber as the rich and powerful get richer and more powerful- you know, because educated, smart people aren’t that easy to fool, but more on that later).

From what I’m seeing, the rift between us is getting widened and the chasm deeper. We’re failing to realize that what the actual majority of us want is actually the same thing- to see the United States prosper and be the best nation in the world. It all seems to come down to the divide of who one thinks the USA is. Most, I believe, want “We the People” to live better lives than our predecessors, and to make the country a better place than when we found it. This means, to most of us, that we’re all better educated and that the job market is strong so that we can all hold our heads up high with dignity that we can get jobs that pay livable wages and that we’re not in constant fear of bankruptcy over a medical emergency. In my opinion, you’d have to be either really fucking ignorant to not want that, or just that self-centered and utterly selfish and as far as I’m concerned, as NOT patriotic as can be. Hearing people bitch about taxes is a good indicator. Sure, taxes can be a bit high, but it’s also an investment in the USA. If you like safe roads and bridges, the best public schools, and so on, then it’s not only the law but your DUTY to pay your damned taxes! The uproar, which there isn’t nearly enough of, is that “We the People” are not seeing a good return on this investment today. Our infrastructure is shit, and we all know it. Our education system is on the path to total collapse, and we all know it. Out military… Jesus Horatio Christ, don’t get me started. Never mind; I’ve already gone there…

As a veteran and coming from a family of military men and women, I love and adore our military. Nobody, and I DO MEAN NOBODY works harder than these people do and for so little reward. I mean, face it- their pay is utter shit. To keep them supplied and to survive, these people live in a certain structure that dictates what job they’ll do, when they’ll do it, and the ‘perks’ like healthcare and so on are “free”… you know- Communism. It’s a life of structure and order, take and receive orders, do your duty, and for little pay and almost no thanks. Then you have to look forward to a failing system (The VA) to help you out and care for you after you get out, showing that all that “Support the Troops” shit all over cars amounts to more of a punch to the crotch than an expression of thanks. All true-believers and “patriots” seem to think we send our beloved family members around the globe to defend our nation and our freedom, but how many of you have actually THOUGHT about this much? I mean, REALLY thought about this… Think- We’re surrounded by… NOTHING. Canada isn’t ever, even at their best, never going to invade us. That much is clear. Hell, just the people with hunting rifles alone could repel an invasion from Canada, numbers alone. Mexico? Not a chance. There will never be a day, nor has there ever been one since the Alamo that Mexico will come marching up to invade us. So that leaves us with what? The Atlantic and Pacific oceans. So, one would think that’s a sure bet that fucking Aquaman’s people aren’t going to rise up out of the waters to kill us or an unexpected attack from Atlantis is going to catch us all off guard. I’m former Navy. I was in the submarine force, and believe me, after all these years, we’d have found Atlantis by now if it was active. I’m pretty sure we’re safe in this regard. So when was the last time you asked yourself some important questions like “Who are we currently at war with?” and “Why?” When was the last time you read up on the history of the Middle Eastern nations, you know, that dumpy, desert area where everyone’s favourite hero Jesus came from? Did you read about how Western wars like WWI and WWII essentially tore the area apart in a modern colonial fashion? Did you read up how borders were drawn by the USA and other European governments, essentially making Iran and Iraq what they are today? Did you catch how these Western powers totally ignored the regions that were Shiite and Sunni? (Do you even know the difference between them? Think, very loosely, that there are differences between Catholics and Protestants, the constant conflict in Ireland, for example.)

What about Afghanistan? Is that a nation, on any level, that’s a threat to the US? Do you think they’re going to come here and kill everyone? Apart from it being numerically impossible should they show up on our soil, it’s also impossible for them to get here. It’s also ignorant to wonder WHY we’re there. We’re not defending the USA. We’re not defending our freedom. So why are we there? Did it have anything, anything at all, with making Haliburton rich by cock-blocking the Russian oil pipeline down through Afghanistan? Would it have anything to do at all with Big Pharma’s stakes in the massive amount of poppy fields there which are used to make their opioids? Take a moment to think this through… we can wait. Too often politicians praise our military for their strength, courage and sacrifice for “protecting” us here at home and (listen carefully and pay attention to the wording here) “our INTERESTS abroad”. What interests? The Iraqi oil fields? The Afghani poppy fields and a block against Russian oil magnates? Who benefits from that? “We the People” certainly do not. When we lose a loved one because he or she is over there in combat, be it Iraq or Afghanistan or wherever, did they die to save our lives here at home? Did they lay down their lives to protect financial investments of America’s rich and powerful? You know, those same fucktards who are always getting tax cuts in the tune of millions while the shrinking middle class and working poor get stuck with the nation’s tax burdens? Yeah, THOSE mega-fuckers. So essentially, on this 4th of July, I’m reminded that the rich and powerful pay people in our government to deploy our military to places that will make them rich, and not have to pay a dime for it. These rich fuckers certainly don’t pay taxes, they don’t pay our military, but they’re sure willing enough to spend their lives to make them richer, aren’t they? Do you think for an instant that a professional mercenary would do the same job for less? Do you think, if these rich assholes on Wall St. had to foot the bill personally, that we as a nation would be at war and throwing away the lives of our own men and women in uniform so lightly? Do you think the rich assholes are willing to step up and pay veteran’s medical bills? Do you see them stepping up to take care of their widowed spouses and children? Of course not. They know full well that our military are expendables. They see vets as the by-product of war to be cast off. They treat this like our servicemen and women are their conscripts; the underpaid cannon fodder that they can laugh at as their bank accounts get bloated with their profits. They think of us as suckers, and to a degree, they’re right.

You see, this is where staying PROPERLY informed is so paramount. KNOWING what’s what is the key to realizing who’s doing right by you and who’s screwing you. QUESTION. Question everything. Question motive. Question who is benefitting and why. Question who is being hurt by legislation. Question why. We used to be able to rely on the media to do this for us. We used to be able to rely on something as basic and simple as our public schools to teach us. We had such high hopes that something as majestic as the internet would bring us together, not just as a nation but as a member of the world community, to have a clearer and better understanding because we can now look shit up and read up on just about anything. But since Reagan shafted the laws that required Truth in Reporting, fake news began to rear its ugly head, and actual journalism with integrity began to suffer. The rich and powerful know that when you keep people in the dark, they’re easier to con out of their money and even their own lives. They bought up media outlets and began to filter what got reported. Any fucking moron knows this. A big corporation that owns a news outlet is certainly not going to let a story out about how the parent company is poisoning the air or water or how they treat their employees like shit and endanger them in unsafe working conditions. FOX News came into being, casting a shadow of doubt over ALL news outlets, and because they prey on people’s fear and hate, they can continue to literally lie, promote conspiracy theories, and damage the integrity of journalism on such a wide scale that there may never be a comeback for honest, truthful and ACCOUNTABLE journalism. It was once considered to be our PATRIOTIC DUTY to be well informed. Now, it’s a national pastime to listen to whatever drivel the news outlets are willing to shit out, like having diarrhea while trying to run a marathon.

I have, as one of my favourite pastimes, read an awful lot of history, from ancient times to present. I don’t see things getting better in the near future. I’m not confident that this nation is going to survive. It would be vain to thing it can. The Soviet Union didn’t last nearly as long. Nations rise and fall, and Republics, fragile things that they are, fall the hardest. We’re on the precipice of total collapse as a society and as a nation, and nobody’s talking about it. I want us to get through this, but nobody’s listening anymore. People believe what they WANT based on their feelings and facts-be-damned. There are those on the political right who want pretty much the same end results as the left, but through different means. The right is also poisoned with poor education and understanding as well as riddled with a hate for anyone not straight, heterosexual and male. Both sides have lost the path to any sort of enlightenment. The importance of art and music is now a comedic happenstance that’s underappreciated like nothing more than a pleasant wrapping paper around a gift; something to be grinned at and then torn off and thrown away, sort of like personal relationships. We no longer have a sense of pride stemming from neighbourhoods that spreads out from communities to surrounding communities, surrounding cities, counties, and finally states. “E Pluribus Unum”; from one, many, now has no significance. We violate the Constitution daily by putting “In God We Trust” in place of what was a very important national motto because we no longer care about the many it seems. We only care about the one, for the most part; the one being “ME”. We’ve strayed quite far from “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country” haven’t we? Today, we’re more the “I got mine; fuck the rest of all y’all” sort of people.

I attribute this to our inability to talk to one another anymore. Personally, I can’t readily speak to a Trump supporter. I can only take so much stupid. These people are either easily conned, or they’re so pissed at the US and the Democrats for turning their backs on the middle/working class to become a diet version of the GOP that they were willing to go with Trump just to watch the house burn down. Not very patriotic… or is it? Debate at will. The point I’m driving at is that there are some very stupid, gullible people out there. They’ve got their five pieces of silver from FOX and buy into their shit while actual scientists, economists and so on are trying desperately to warn us all about the pitfalls ahead. Trump and the rich and powerful, who profit on disaster, don’t want you or me to know about the dangers ahead, so they’re clouding the credibility of all media. While their followers fall in line like sheep to the slaughter, the rest of us are, or at least WERE working to try to save them, even from themselves, but they don’t want to be saved.

I think we don’t talk to one another anymore mainly because I don’t think people like me, the Liberals, Progressives, the actual “Christians” who walk the walk and not just talk the talk, are DONE trying to save them. We’ve got ourselves to worry about and time and resources are getting short in supply. We USED to want to help them; to reach down and help pull ALL of the “We the People” up so they could have better paying jobs, better health care coverage, better education and so forth. However, when you reach down to help bring someone below you up and all they do is pull hard to try and bring you back down, it’s time to let go. When they’d rather bring you down with the ship instead of letting you help them into a lifeboat, then it’s time to pull back and let them drown. We used to see Patriotism as focusing on our OWN nation first and, if we’ve got something in surplus, to send that as aid to others around the world, unconditionally. We can’t get our own house in order anymore.

The way I see it, Progressives/Liberals see America/Earth as a house; a gift from God or Nature, to be taken care of and its inhabitants respected and treated with care and dignity for all. Looking at it as a house, we want to upgrade all the utilities whenever possible, to ensure efficiency and safety so that all living in it will be protected and happy. On the other hand, Conservatives have come to represent something akin to the inhabitants of “Animal House”; something to party in, something to ignore when drinks spill on the carpet or when someone’s sick and puking in the sink or having a shit on the floor somewhere. Conservatives take what they can and give little to nothing back and call themselves “Christians”, and that really pisses me off. It’s why I left religion. These people make me sick. The big reason I can’t talk to them isn’t because I lack material, research or information. The big reason is because they REFUSE to listen or to take an interest in doing their own research. They refuse to listen, and I’ve wasted enough breath to know that further talk is pointless. Their ignorance keeps them in bliss, one would think, yet these conservatives are so very, very angry at the dumbest shit. They’re all pro-Jesus yet all pro-guns. They’re pro-fetus, yet so very, very anti-life overall. They’re hypocrites on far too many levels it’s a wonder they haven’t actually imploded like a black hole; an entity overwhelmed by too many contradictions.

So on this 4th of July, try to focus on what YOU think is the true definition of “Patriot” and “Patriotism”. Does it go as far as the simple, dumb-sounding definition you can find instantly on Google? “Vigorous support of one’s country” it said. But what if your country is turning into a shit hole and sinking fast? Should you support that, if that’s what the government is doing? Should you FIGHT against that instead? Which supports the country? Wiki says ‘Patriotism’ is “an attachment to a homeland”. Simple, and yet a bit baseless, don’t you think? Dictionary.com defines patriotism as “devoted love, support, and defense of one’s country; national loyalty”. How often do we confuse this with nationalism, pride and vanity?

Think about that. Ponder all of this on Independence Day, a day of national vanity. Blasphemous? Perhaps. You see, when a prisoner ‘declares’ himself free, it doesn’t make him/her so until escape or parole comes around. America’s Declaration of Independence was finalized and began being signed on the 4th of July, 1776. It didn’t MEAN we were a free and independent nation. There was a war to fight first, and that didn’t conclude until 1783 when Britain conceded and recognized their loss and our right to be a free and independent nation. That was almost seven years later, man. THAT was when the WORLD knew we’d won and the United States of America was now fully out of the womb and born. But hey, what are historical facts in this “Post-Truth” and “Alternative Fact” nation today?

-Joe

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