You Know Something? I Love This Country. Really, I Do

[ThomWV]

I'm getting old and retired now. I was born in Washington and have lived in every corner of this country. I was lucky enough to get an education after I got out of the Army and then my wife finished her degree, and as a consequence my wife, son, and I have lived comfortably. Nowdays I ride a motorcycle. That's nothing new, I've owned and driven bikes since I was a teenager, besides, its economical. The difference between my teens and now is now I ride more slowly and just to see places. I try to understand what I'm seeing too. I look at the towns and the communities and I try to see why they are there, what did the people do? Was it logging, farming, mining? I read the history of the region and I stop at every Historical Marker too - every one!

Yesterday I took a particularly scenic ride. There is a 200 mile loop you can make by heading northwest across the lower northern panhandle of West Virginia until you hit the Ohio River and then turn north to Wheeling before coming east through southern Pennsylvania and then dropping back down. About half of the ride is interstate but the other half is across a part of the United States that almost no one ever sees. There are vistas in Marshall County thar rival anything in the west; there are communities so poor that the word squalor does not do them justice. The Harley purrs on.

This country is not about to collapse and we are in no danger of being overtaken by a rogue regime in Washington bent on enslaving us. No outside force threatens us. We are vast and impenetrable. We are strong and beautiful beyond compare. We have untapped resources in such abundance it would stagger the people of most of the world's countries. I don't give a dam what kind of propaganda they try to spread from Washington, this nation is in fine shape and has nothing to fear from anyone. We are in need of a political cleanup, a mopping of the deck, that is all. Compared to our wealth our problems are nothing, nothing that can not be addressed and no problem that can not be solved. I love this country.

[fed-up]

1. can I have some of whatever you are smoking??? things are definitely not in fine shape in CA nt

[TwilightGardener]

2. That's a nice post. Your second paragraph took me home to Southwestern PA--

made me a little homesick (sniff!).

[TahitiNut]

12. Put on your hard shoes and some clogging music.

Yee-haw! (I love watching cloggers.)

[frogcycle]

3. I agree with your first two pp's

That is why I am so concerned abbout what you dismiss in the third

[Initech]

4. Did you see that BBC documentary a few weeks ago?

I love this country too, but I hate the direction it's headed in. In said documentary, it documents how a group of right-wing businessmen, spearheaded by Bush's own grandfather, Prescott Bush (who I am convinced is Satan himself), and how they plotted to overthrow the FDR administration and install a fascist dictatorship. Just like everything the Bushes have tried, that failed as well. I would love to say we're safe, but I wouldn't get my hopes up.

[tabasco]

5. We are 42nd in life expectancy and #1 in prison population.

#1 in prison population in both absolute and proportional terms.

Those are not minor problems.

[Drum]

6. Thom, I grew up in Wheeling,

and know that area well. I agree with the sentiments, and the comfort drawn from those surroundings. I live in a very different place nowadays---NYC---but my memory (and the occasional drive) of N. WV, W. PA and E. OH bring me comfort when all the stress stacks up.

Peace,
Drum
:hi:

[proud patriot]

7. K and R

for making me smile after the worst bout of food poisoning
I've ever been through .

14 lbs in 3 days, but Doc says my vitals a good .

Thanks for the beauty of this post .

[Champion Jack]

8. I might have seen you on the road

[sandnsea]

9. Two Americas

The America you just described will always be there to make the sacrifices and clean up the mess of the ones who insist they are all wise and powerful, while sneering at the ones who do the work and hold this country together.

[scarletwoman]

10. A lovely post. I get what you're saying, and I appreciate the injection of optimism -- even if

I don't particularily share it.

I love this country, too. The land above all, I think. I've not been out East except for a few quick forays into the Poconos near Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania, and one trip in the early 80s to upstate New York somewhere in the vicinity of Woodstock.

I've made several cross-country trips westward from my home base in Minnesota. I even drove the AlCan once, in 1995, when I decided to leave Alaska and head back for Minnesota by car with my 11 year old son and a tent.

I have lived in the Rockies of Colorado, in Venice Beach, CA, the San Juan Islands in Washinton state, the Colestine valley in Oregon, and Alaska -- even in Des Moines, Iowa! I love the land, the breadth and sweep of it, the incredible variety of it, the utter beauty of it.

My love for the land, for this particular geographical location on the planet, will keep me here no matter what kind of political shit comes down. That being said, I do believe that there IS much more nasty political shit to come down -- but loving the land is a very powerful counter-force no matter what.

sw

[JeffR]

11. I know the area you're talking about, Thom, a little

and I agree with your assessment.

As to your larger point, the nation is strong and beautiful, indeed. But that strength and beauty are under daily attack... from within. Left unchecked, this attack will eventually bring us down. Rome was once wealthy, strong and dizzying in its diversity. And it fell nonetheless. We have their example, and many others, to profit by; if we fail to do so, we're complicit in destroying ourselves.

I wish I could agree that a mop is all the cleaning up we need. But it goes way beyond that now, I believe. We need major renovation, not sprucing up.

But I salute the spirit of what you've written here, despite that. We need to take some inspiration from it. So thank you.

[NuttyFluffers]

13. it's a wonderful country

but the man... he burnin' it down. he burnin' it down! and it's burnin' down, and it's called the U.S. of A. -- Dear Mr. President, 4 Non Blondes

recently came from a vacation elsewhere in usa and yes, this is really a beautiful country. it really is. and i think that's why it hurts so much for people to see it being striped-mined, abused, and thrown in the gutter by these criminals. the promise of the land and the people and the ideals, it's still there, still there. it could be so much better, all of it, and so good that helping the rest of the world would seem so easy, so easy. but all that potential lost in selfishness and timidity to do the right thing. all gone, soon it will be all gone...

[U4ikLefty]

14. When someone born today reaches your age in America

will they believe as you do?

That is the question we have to ask ourselves when looking to the future.

Living on our past will do us no good at this point in history.