The America We Knew

What is America to me?
A name, a map, the flag I see,
A certain word, “Democracy,”
What is America to me?
The House I Live In– Frank Sinatra

I can’t remember where I first saw this anti-fascism short that Sinatra made in ’45 but I am certain I heard the song I linked above with one of my grandfathers.

Been thinking about it since Tuesday night when the news began reporting on the results of the election and I began to recognize 45 was going to be sent back to the Oval Office.

Been thinking about it since I watched a group of people begin to lose it online and another group begin to crow about payback and how Project 2025 had always been real.

I looked at the screen and told those who thought it cool to be cruel to remember things don’t always play out as we expect and that they might live to regret that vote.

I looked at the screen and told those who were crushed to pick their heads up and prepare to resist and to battle. I told them the unknown can be a scary place and that anticipation allows for angst.

And then I told my kids we survived the first admin and we’ll survive this one too because it is what we do. If we need to move states or move countries that is what we will do.

But we weren’t going to panic and we weren’t going to engage in knee jerk reactions. “We’re going to play the hand we’re dealt and go from there.”

Does The Post Mortem Matter?

That was my initial response to the news that Harris had lost. It came from anger and disappointment. It came from knowing the campaign was blowing it with a chunk of my people.

They are/were afraid because for a year there has been chaos for Jewish students on many college campuses and it hasn’t felt like it has been taken very seriously.

There have been multiple antisemitic attacks around the US and the world and more than a few people have said things like “it is bad but…”

It has gone alongside comments about situation in Israel where people suggested that October 7 was justified or exaggerated.

Lack of outright condemnation and consistent action has created an environment of anger, mistrust, disappointment and fear.

That led some people to vote for a man they readily admit is unfit but talks a good game about law and order.

I was never ever going to vote for the felon. I have no reason to trust his word and his track record of failure didn’t inspire me to believe that a guy who say anything for a vote would follow through.

But many did and whether it is fair or reasonable to hold the administration accountable for not doing more to try to calm down the chaos at universities doesn’t matter.

People believed they should have. People hear what they want to hear and they heard a felon say he’ll bring down the price of eggs and they care more about that than civil liberties.

When he said he would bring order to college campuses some of the scared and foolish bought into that too and believed his word would provide safety for their kids.

Not sure how giving up civil liberties for that is a good thing but people often act irrationally and illogically in spite of their assertions otherwise.

Where Have I Been?

I haven’t updated this place in weeks.

If you want to catch up you can try The Hero’s Journey Part 2 or The Hero’s Journey. I think part 2 has links to the posts that came in between, not that there were that many in between.

If you want to know why I haven’t I can plead temporary insanity and I say I went on an extended walkabout.

Some of you will say temporary insanity is an inaccurate description and claim I have always been crazy.

My response is the same as always, “if it makes you feel good to call me so be my guest. I am not bothered by it.”

In spite of what some say there is a relatively short list of things that truly bother me but those few things tend to be the things that really stick in my craw.

Anyhoo a big part of why I haven’t been here is I have been focused on some personal matters and big changes.

Sometimes you have to put the pen down and or leave the Smith-Corona inside its case. Sometimes you have to take the time to do the work because if you don’t it will find you at a time of its own convenience which may not match yours.

Add curiosity to my not spending time here as well. Curiosity about whether I would miss it or if I would be bothered by not tip tapping away on the keyboard.

The answer is I am not sure.

I have produced a significant amount of content elsewhere and worked on things that scratched the creativity itch…mostly.

The America We Knew

I was born in the late 60s, and was a kid of the 70s and 80s more or less. When I started college in the late 80s I still wrote papers on a typewriter.

In many ways it wasn’t much different from what my parents did though by the end of my university years I did have access to computers.

But the Berlin Wall had fallen, the Cold War ended and life was relatively simple.

Even when we said goodbye to our friends who were off to fight the first Gulf War no one was particularly worried. We knew that Saddam was going to get his ass kicked and that life would be ok.

It was a relatively naive way of looking at the world but not entirely surprising. Our grandparents had fought in WWII and in some cases Korea.

Whether we truly believed in American exceptionalism or not we felt like we had a pretty good country. It had its issues and its challenges, but nothing we couldn’t overcome in time.

Looking back at the OKC bombing, Columbine, the first attack on the World Trade Center and then 9/11 I can see how things started to change.

Could bring in Ruby Ridge and Waco/Branch Davidians as well I suppose and make a case how all of that played into the changes too.

You don’t always notice or connect things until you look backwards and even then it may not be clear.

But I keep thinking about the America I knew and whether the America I see today are really that different.

I keep wondering if some of the hate and mistrust was always there beneath the surface just waiting for someone to bring it to the top.

I haven’t come to a final conclusion though I lean towards saying what we are hearing/seeing was always there and it is verbalized because the felon made it permissible.

Social media and misinformation have helped erode some of the walls too.

Am I prepared to say the America we knew is forever gone?

No.

Am I prepared to say the America we thought we knew never was?

No.

Am I prepared to say we are in a bad place and that things are likely to get ugly?

Yes.

Am I prepared to say we should just give up and accept it?

Nope, not time to give up. Not time at all, now we push back, resist and fight. Now we band together to push not for the America we thought we knew but the one we always wanted to have.

Will we get there?

I don’t know but I am confident it is worth the effort as you miss every shot you don’t take.

Not sure if this rambling piece of random thoughts is particularly good but it is what I have got for now.

Take care of yourselves.