As we approached our bicentennial some five and a half years ago I was approached by a friendly, if naive, publisher of a new regional magazine, The Link. I was asked to write a brief essay on the state of our union along with ten or twelve other locals. The economy hadn't yet rolled over the cliff and we were still being told on the news every evening that the war was being won by the good guys. Of course the local newspaper was not just a flyer and they cheered on the establishment and the mighty military. We were still in the days of "U.S.A., U.S.A." and "Mission Accomplished."
My little piece must have seemed terribly pessimistic and more than a little unpatriotic at the time. My pal, Walt, ran across a copy of the magazine as he was clearing out some of that junk that accumulates and brought it over for me to read. I wish that I had guessed incorrectly and I wish that all those other guys had been right. We had to fight them over there to keep from fighting them over here, remember? We were gonna get everything fixed as soon as the Dixie Chicks shut up. You know who's side God is on, don't you?
Well, I still believe that a golden age is coming and I hope that it's the one that the Occupy Movement kicked off. In the meantime we have hungry, homeless folks out there and a lot of veterans returning to a bleak economic landscape.
We have figured out that all three branches of our federal government are failing us and making bad guys wealthy in the process. With love in our hearts we can fix anything. Give us peace on earth and end this dreadful, dreadful war.
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