Thoughts on July Fourth, 2021
If you do not have power in a democracy, or in any other structure of cultural gathering, then you damn well better have the potential to get power and to be able to transmit the image of that potential to others around you. On this 4th of July, many things should be considered. We don’t live in a culture that believes work is good, except for others working. Work is ‘punishment’ that must be endured and workers can only be had if they are paid as little as they will work for. Money supplies, personal and corporate, are almost all ‘proprietary’ in nature, so other people don’t really know what other people are getting. Ask for help. Go ahead and ask your friends for financial help. They will offer anything other than money, which means they will offer to do nothing (like at a funeral, when people come up and ask if there’s anything they can do…and they damned well don’t mean cash). You will soon have no friends.
We all survive on a mutually knitted fabric of common goals, desires, and accomplishments. If you are, even temporarily, a break in a thread of that fabric, then the fabric will quickly heal over or isolate that spot…and move on, without you. The question that not many people want to answer on this 4th of July, or on any that preceded it, is ‘how do we get to a better place in order to experience more bliss?’ How do we get to a place where we all wake up in the morning determined to do better in the new day, and reflecting on how good we did on the day before, instead of regretting what we did that day before.
The country’s attempts to actually interpret and apply those wondrous sentiments expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are laudable and continuing, although often set back by individual, and then groups of humans, who simply want to take until they die in place, while still taking. Those are also the ones who are constantly on a treadmill, running from what they regret about what they’ve done on the days before. We watched four years of ‘taking’ go by, as we did through the eight years of the Bush Jr. reign. The movie wherein Michael Douglass declared “greed is good” was a primer for what was to happen in reality. People can be convinced that taking and greed is good…and for a while that works. But not forever. Eventually, the culture rights itself and decides at its very core that it wants to be happy again. The bliss is not in the taking. It is in the giving.
Read the New Testament. That ‘man’ gave it all, time and again, and taught what I am simply repeating. Why is he so hard to follow? Why is he so pleasing and easy to read but so difficult to take the words and then really apply them? Because greed works in so many situations, but greed is far far from being good. Step back and take a hard objective look at some men you’ve watched for years. Is Trump happy? Is Cheney happy? Is Bush happy? They took it all and have it all, but what have they ended up with? The eventual result of greed is misery, but that misery is invisible until you reach the point where you possess it. When the Declaration was written the three parts: “they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” that third part (the pursuit of happiness) was actually penned in by Thomas Jefferson. The original word those words replaced was ‘property.’
Don’t forget, it is imbued in you and assigned to you, yes you, the duty and responsibility to make all of what has been built a place that is filled with bliss, not greed. This culture is not yet for the weak, the poor, the homeless, the aged, or inform. To help those people be real citizens and enjoy this bliss I write of, you, yes you, must have power, or be able to project that you have it or will soon have it in the future. Now, go forth and be a real American, starting on this 4th of July.
With this, you have subjected your reader to political opinion, which takes away from the bright light of your personal story and it’s portrayal of personal historical experience.
I do believe I have earned the right and privilege to write about my opinions dealing with the human leadership condition in the USA.
Chuck Bartok put this article up here, not me. It’s not that I don’t care what you think, it’s that so many people share your opinion that
somehow we must all think alike or that’s it, we are out. I did not come home from the war to hurt or kill people or not dedicate myself to
redemption by doing as many good works as ai can before I die. There is no tough love in my life. There is only love.
Sorry you didn’t like what I wrote, but there it was and there it is and here I am.
Semper fi,
Jim
You have been with me for a long time and I will miss your presence. Strange times we live in
when political polarization divides us right down the middle.
Semper fi,
Jim
The real greed is the greed for power. Those who cheat and lie and sell out there country for money are the real greedy. Money is power!
Thanks for adding that bit Myrie,
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim – LT – We are miles apart politically, but joined in our love for our great Nation. I thank YOU for your words on this celebration of the birth of America.
I also thank you for doing the “bidding” of those appointed over us back in the 1960’s – 1970’s. You and I, and many others, will always share that bond, regardless of differences in politics or religion.
I do believe in that ‘man’ who took upon himself to pay for our sins. You are Catholic, I am Protestant, of the Mennonite faith. We both try to do that which that ‘man’ and our good Lord, ask us to do, which is to honor him in all things.
I am grateful that you are such an accomplished writer, but in fact and in fiction. Some of your short stories will bring me to tears – and i love you all the more for it. Semper Fi, my friend.
Thanks Craig, now that is a comment and a half. I had to read it three times and take it all in.
You are kinder to me in your description of my work, effort and life than I might be to myself.
You are a class act and I cannot thank you enough.
Semper fi,
Jim
Missed out on the part where you said Biden is running a criminal enterprise?
I am pissed because a bunch of jackasses in Congress are continuing to rip off taxpayers, and want to keep you and I as their slaves.
Simper Fi
It is always easy to justify your actions, and that is the human condition. religion is just part of the way to justify the means!
well and truthfully stated James!
Herein, my friend, you have addressed the fundamental problem with today’s American Society. It is not just about “greed” for worldly possessions, it’s equally about “greed” in the way my ideas/opinions are far superior to those who do not abjectly agree with me. We have lost the way – no longer are there any negotiations and attempts to reach compromise – simply my way or no way. In my mid-70s I am beginning to have doubts, but I do fervently hope I live long enough, where I can see America become a country with a functioning government which treats all its citizens equally and we can actually become that fabled “shining city on a hill”. In any case, enjoyed your column and Happy 4th of July.