I’m considering cutting my ears off.
I’ve recently returned from a trip across America (my latest blog tour), and I’m less happy than I was when I left. That sounds opposite, I know, but you have to understand the emotional roller coaster to which I was subject on a daily basis.
Each day, without exception, my spirits peaked only to be beaten back down again by sunset. In the mornings, we would gear up for another 350-450 mile drive to our next destination, making casual, small-town stops for food, fuel and flushers along the way, and with every new glimpse of America that I absorbed, no matter how remote or involved, my heart became filled with love, my soul with amazement and my mind with stimulation. Who has been here? Who built this? Look at all this greatness! What has gone on at this spot across the centuries? How has this city evolved? My God, look at all this freedom! No number of eyes could have satisfied my gluttony for the visions.
Yet, by nightfall, I was always in a very different state of mind – more disturbed and ambivalent. In the evenings, when I would listen to the news, I could only hang my head despairingly over what I heard. Visions of mountaintops, freight trains and rickety general stores yielded to and vanished behind sounds of police abuse, despotism and control. Sure, I should be desensitized to these stories by now, but they seemed to take on a whole new weight after leaving my Southeast Pennsylvania shell and experiencing America as a whole. Each day, I tried my best to believe in the steadfastness of Americanism – that our core could never be contaminated. Each day, the country that I saw confirmed that we are not like any other country, that our greatness is unparalleled and that we’re kind, hardworking and freethinking people and no thing or no one can EVER take that away from us. But each night, the country that I heard about was very different. In the ensuing week of travel, I experienced two facets of America: the visual and the audible. Here is the tale of two countries.
MONDAY
They say if you could iron out West Virginia, it would be the size of Texas. This finally made sense to me when I stopped there for a concert, and the sight of thousands of people enjoying uninhibited freedom against the mountainous backdrop greeted my eyes.
Later, my mood was ironed out when I heard the latest ObamaCare report: Congress plans to enforce the individual mandate that all Americans MUST own health insurance as a condition of citizenship by wrapping it in the cloak of taxation. Failure to pay this tax (a.k.a. buy health insurance) can result in up to a year in prison. That’s not the America I saw.
TUESDAY
As I crossed from Illinois into Missouri, the vision of the St. Louis skyline engulfed my eyes, and I thought, what other country can claim so many major cities, each displaying such magnificent wealth and achievement? The answer, of course, is none. Countries with more than twice our population and/or landmass aren’t even in our ballpark. What do you think is the reason? If you have an idea, feel free to post them below.
In the evening, my ears were devastated by the sounds of people trying to dismantle our engines of wealth and achievement. In an interview, Nancy Pelosi talked about the possibility of a Value Added Tax (VAT) to manufactured goods as a means of addressing our nation’s fiscal problems. Of course, Ms. Pelosi doesn’t understand that the same principles that drive high-income individuals out of areas where taxes are too high will also drive consumers out of various areas of commerce where taxes are too high, costing us millions of jobs and our standard of living.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7R9wYLmzKI&feature=related
WEDNESDAY
As I passed through the heartland, I stopped in rural Fanning, MO for a glimpse of the world’s largest rocking chair. Not expecting much at first, I was amazed when I actually saw it. Just look how it dwarfs the house next to it! It was another example of American determination and ingenuity. Sure, it doesn’t serve much of a purpose, but that’s kind of the point: in America, we don’t do things because someone else wants us to or because we have to; we do them because they fulfill us in some personal way. That’s what makes this ridiculous rocking chair essential Americana.
Ingenuity and determination be damned – gimmie what I want for FREE! That night, I heard reports of over 50,000 Detroit residents lining up at a government center for $3,000 stimulus checks. Fights broke out as the people clamored to make it to the front of the line. How will they ever find a job and become self-sufficient if they’re spending all their time waiting in line and filling out applications for government handouts? They won’t; they’ve been enslaved by the welfare state.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfGLB8LO1aM
THURSDAY
This is a view from I was able to capture from a New Mexican mountaintop. There is no good way to convey the feeling I had up there, observing the vastness of the rest of the landscape. I’ll just say that as I stood on the land that many others had no doubt stood on before me, I felt a powerful aura of freedom and untamed humanity. Many countries have breathtaking sights, but few can instill the same emotion.
Visions of freedom and untamed humanity faded with the sunlight that night as the airwaves contained the sounds of dependency and subservience to overseas masters. A new climate treaty to be executed in Copenhagen in a matter of weeks will cede America’s sovereignty and prosperity to a cadre of unelected world officials. The treaty will enact a fledgling world government charged with enforcing the payment of “climate debts” to third world countries, which have had their climates affected by our carbon emissions. Up to 2% of our GDP could be subject to these payments.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMe5dOgbu40&feature=player_embedded
FRIDAY
As the sights of Grand Canyon and Sedona, AZ at dusk flooded my vision, thoughts of American exceptionalism carried me away. Forget the Constitution, forget wealth and warfare –America as a land mass is the finest in the world. Nowhere else possesses such diverse terrain and prehistoric landscape. Just being here evokes a sense of greatness. No other venue on Earth is fit to do what America has done.
By night, sights of diversity took a backseat to noises about diversity. In the same vain as the Fairness Doctrine, I was hearing that the proposed Net Neutrality regulations were seeking to censor ideas and speech on the Internet behind the veil of fairness and diversity. To them, diversity is everyone looking different, but thinking the same – robots made of different metals, but running on the same software – the antithesis (and ultimate downfall) of Americanism.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uULNBso0BU (Not from the night I heard the story, but a good analysis)
SATURDAY
As I moved through the golden California hills, the sight of a freight train rolling along struck me as a classic testament to American innovation. When we invented the railroad, we revolutionized industry. We created a high-speed, low-cost means of transporting goods that attracted enormous levels of overseas investment, created jobs, reduced the cost of goods for everyone and solidified America’s middle class as the strongest in the world. Behold, the power of free enterprise.
But as darkness once again overtook the light, so did the sounds overtake the sights. Lawmakers hell-bent on destroying the enterprise system and spirit of innovation you see above (Rep. Charlie Rangel and company) and calling for a second stimulus package filled the airwaves as my mood sank. The package would add to the already unsustainable deficit of $1.4 trillion. ONE POINT FOUR TRILLION. The number was dizzying and it rang inside my head like the last toll of the liberty bell. Of course I knew the size of the deficit before, but it seemed to take on added weight, and even right now, the thought makes me lightheaded. I feel trapped inside of a mansion on fire – a long wait and no escape.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI3K5Y_0gDc
SUNDAY
As the sun fell on Manhattan Beach, CA and the other far western reaches of the continental United States, and drew the American week to a close, the metaphor seemed fitting. Once again, the great sights illuminated in the daylight would disappear and give way to the unsettling sounds of the night. At sunset, during the time when our two country’s overlap, it’s a good time to reflect on which will ultimately prevail, to choose your side and to plan your execution. It’s not about the sounds people make about what they believe America should be; it’s about what we can see that America actually is! And we on the side of the American vision will have to prepare for a long and arduous battle with those on the side of the audible. While they may have the edge of media and money, we stand on the side of God and conviction. A quick look at history shows which side seems to prevail. Remember, where the sunsets, it must also rise.
I’ll spare you the Sunday news story.
Who needs ears anyway?
No comments:
Post a Comment