Randy Inman
Kim K.
I Double Dog Dare You To Attack Iran
July 11th 2008 15:14
Those now famous shots of Iranian missles being launched made me laugh. Not because it was funny, but because at this point there is nothing else to do.
People are posting about how America's arrogance is what would make us go to war, and I have to disagree. It isn't arrogance, but it is other fatal flaws.
Among them is the progression from liberty to parenting in the US this century. Within our own borders, our motto has changed from "live and let live," to "live the way we think you should and we'll leave you alone, (unless we think you need help and then we will give you some at the expense of others)." It started with the New Deal and has gone from there. We once had a country of people who only expected to be given basic rights. It "progressed" to one where the government felt the need to help everyone. Now we are living in a country where people feel ENTITLED to everything and protest any time the government can't give it. They scream for help and the government continues to dole it out. In exchange for all that help, the government increasingly feels the need to tell us how to live and watch over us like a doting parent. We have allowed them to fit that role and sacrificed our basic frredoms for it. Now we sit around like a bunch of teenagers and say You can't tell me what to do! Now give me some gas money!
Our foreign policy has followed suit. We were once very close to non-interventionalist when it came to foreign affairs. Over the course of the century we became more concerned with helping others. Now, we force help on those who didn't ask for it, and are expected to clean up every mess in the world. If we aren't invading a country, we are throwing money at it. Some countries feel like they are entitled to our help. Others taunt us like a naughty kid in hopes we will take the bait. After giving three warnings like a good parent, the USA feels like its needs to give that other little country a good spank to teach them a lesson. That good spank goes too far and suddenly we've gone from being a stern parent to a child abuser. Of course the kids fight back and scratch us up a bit, but overall the parents knows they can win... if only because we have weapons the kids don't.
Just like our citizens have become children to the government, the world has become our playground.
Our founding fathers struggled between wanting everyone to have the same rights we did, and not wanting to endanger our own freedoms. James Madison once said, "The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home." I don't think any one of us wanted Saddam Hussein beating down the little guys in his country and performing routine genocide. We don't want people in 3rd world countries starving to death. We are a caring people. I argue that it is in fact our well intentioned caring nature as a people that has led us to where we are. The American people want to feel like we are doing some good. The problem is, that we don't know when to stop. Just like our addictions to food, gadgets, stuff, bigger and better....our addiction to doing good has turned our government into the parent to it's citizens and in turn, our country into the world's bad father.
Some may say I'm not a patriot or that I am being UnAmerican. I am absolutely a patriot. I don't like the direction this country is going and as a patriot I feel the need to speak up. I have used the word "we" throughout because as ashamed as I am of where we have allowed this country to go, I fully understand that it is my fault and responsibility to fix it as much as it is everyone else's. I care too much about this country to allow it to degrade any further.
I don't want to be anyone's kid but my parent's, and no one's parent but my own kids. It is time for us to let go of this role we have fallen into and allow both our own people and the rest of the world to live as they wish whether or not we agree with how they use that freedom.
People are posting about how America's arrogance is what would make us go to war, and I have to disagree. It isn't arrogance, but it is other fatal flaws.
Among them is the progression from liberty to parenting in the US this century. Within our own borders, our motto has changed from "live and let live," to "live the way we think you should and we'll leave you alone, (unless we think you need help and then we will give you some at the expense of others)." It started with the New Deal and has gone from there. We once had a country of people who only expected to be given basic rights. It "progressed" to one where the government felt the need to help everyone. Now we are living in a country where people feel ENTITLED to everything and protest any time the government can't give it. They scream for help and the government continues to dole it out. In exchange for all that help, the government increasingly feels the need to tell us how to live and watch over us like a doting parent. We have allowed them to fit that role and sacrificed our basic frredoms for it. Now we sit around like a bunch of teenagers and say You can't tell me what to do! Now give me some gas money!
all he needs is a wifebeater and a beer
Our foreign policy has followed suit. We were once very close to non-interventionalist when it came to foreign affairs. Over the course of the century we became more concerned with helping others. Now, we force help on those who didn't ask for it, and are expected to clean up every mess in the world. If we aren't invading a country, we are throwing money at it. Some countries feel like they are entitled to our help. Others taunt us like a naughty kid in hopes we will take the bait. After giving three warnings like a good parent, the USA feels like its needs to give that other little country a good spank to teach them a lesson. That good spank goes too far and suddenly we've gone from being a stern parent to a child abuser. Of course the kids fight back and scratch us up a bit, but overall the parents knows they can win... if only because we have weapons the kids don't.
Just like our citizens have become children to the government, the world has become our playground.
Our founding fathers struggled between wanting everyone to have the same rights we did, and not wanting to endanger our own freedoms. James Madison once said, "The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home." I don't think any one of us wanted Saddam Hussein beating down the little guys in his country and performing routine genocide. We don't want people in 3rd world countries starving to death. We are a caring people. I argue that it is in fact our well intentioned caring nature as a people that has led us to where we are. The American people want to feel like we are doing some good. The problem is, that we don't know when to stop. Just like our addictions to food, gadgets, stuff, bigger and better....our addiction to doing good has turned our government into the parent to it's citizens and in turn, our country into the world's bad father.
Some may say I'm not a patriot or that I am being UnAmerican. I am absolutely a patriot. I don't like the direction this country is going and as a patriot I feel the need to speak up. I have used the word "we" throughout because as ashamed as I am of where we have allowed this country to go, I fully understand that it is my fault and responsibility to fix it as much as it is everyone else's. I care too much about this country to allow it to degrade any further.
I don't want to be anyone's kid but my parent's, and no one's parent but my own kids. It is time for us to let go of this role we have fallen into and allow both our own people and the rest of the world to live as they wish whether or not we agree with how they use that freedom.
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