America, What the #$*! Do We Know?

Once again I’m aghast about how totally screwed up my country seems to be. MSNBC posted a story (link) about how people are up in arms about a wholesome free magazine on parenting having a cover with a baby feeding on…gasp…IS THAT A BREAST!?! Yes, I’m sad to report that a baby was photographed feeding on its natural source of sustenance: a breast.

Now, I try hard to keep my posts diplomatic and easily digestible to all, but I’ve got to tell my fellow countrymen that objecting to this photo, in the numbers you have, shows how truly fucked up your priorities are. Where the hell were you guys when we were ramping up to war; a war that was clearly seen as unnecessary by anyone willing to even casually pay attention to what was going on in the world? Oh, yeah, most of y’all were supporting it without question…even years later until the truth couldn’t be ignored.

As our cities have been warming, our permafrost and ice caps melting, and oceans being cleared of “useful” animal life, most of my fellow citizens have been content to let out current administration not only turn a blind eye, but prevaricate at will. In the past, we’d have relied on the press to tell us what was what, but even the fourth estate has ceded its role to those timeless ball-busters: comedians.

We get swift action on a Super Bowl halftime show (heavens…another breast), but when it comes to helping out fellow countrymen trapped in a sunken city in the path of a powerful force of nature…well, maybe something like that can wait until we do something like pass a bill to raise pay—not for ordinary Americans, but for the rich politicians who are the corrupt slaves of whoever has more money are there to serve the interests of their constituents.

America…if you truly want to be the land of the free, you’ve got to pay attention to what is important: your ability to think problems through on your own and not to let anyone else have that authority over you. Just because your favorite media pundit, or your religious leader, or just about any politician you can name says that they speak the truth and know just how you should think about things, doesn’t mean that you can safely retreat into their personal agendas without having to endure the consequences of relinquishing your inalienable right to have your own opinion.

All I ask, all anyone can ask, is that you not only listen to those people you agree with, but to many of those you don’t. Don’t just casually assume that you are right and they are wrong. Occasionally, try to look at a problem from their perspective. It’s not easy. Sometimes it’s very distasteful. But a wondrous thing will happen: you will be making decisions based on an honestly considered variety of input. You won’t simply be a rubber stamp, but a force to be reckoned with. Shoot, every now and again your own views might even change (I’m not talking drastic change—even tiny, subtle change can have a profound effect in the world). You will be a person with true moral fiber and will be able to stand before any judge to voice your own views with conviction, and not simply repeat the spew of others.

So, my fellow Americans, instead of reflexively screaming in protest at things that are actually trivial, please take a step back on occasion and look at the things that really matter. You’ll find that “issues” such as breast feeding, or who marries whom, or even worty dirds aren’t nearly as destructive to the soul as forgetting the freedoms we now enjoy; freedoms that so many fought to defend. Its tough to embrace those freedoms sometimes, especially when some aspect rubs us the wrong way, but if we don’t let them be our foundation, the country that so many have built and mortared with their blood might become too fractured to stand.