THIS IS NOT MY AMERICA

********************************************************************************** Interesting video under the header. No further comment. ********************************************************************************* The other day, Wild Thing and I had finished lunch and, as is our wont, we surfed through the television news channels to see what was happening in our world and our country. We do this quite often and it usually gives us a kick off point for discussions. And it certainly did that. We watched as Americans bemoaned the loss of their jobs and asked what they could do about it? One of them, a woman in her late fifties had been employed at a job which paid her more than $60,000 a year. She had worked for the company for 30 some years and had no really marketable skills in the depression market. Another, a man who seemed to be 30 something, who had lost his job at an automobile dealership. He had been making about $14 an hour. He had no degree to help him. Not even one from high school. His life was beginning to look pretty bleak. There were a number of other similar instances shown. Too many to recount here. Then we switched to another channel. The news readers were discussing the closing of automobile dealerships, using the case of a dealer who owed no one anything for the cars he was selling, was successful enough to buy the stock he needed and was making a profit. He had inherited the business from his father and had been running it for years. But he was being forced out of business because the American car manufacturer would no longer sell him automobiles. The news readers were a bit upset about this. But you could see they had no idea what to do. Couldn't think of asking people to write the President about it, either. They failed when they didn't point out that every single exporting country of cars backs their manufacturers with money. Every one, that is, except America. Every. Other. One. Another switch and a story showing the Attorney General simperingly complaining about guns in the U.S. My thoughts went to somehow alerting all real Americans to purchase full auto AKs and such. And plenty of ammunition. We continued surfing for a while, hearing all the "news" available then. A bleeding heart asking all Americans to welcome "immigrants" to the U.S. (No, he did not use the word "illegal" in conjunction with that, either.) Right after that came news of California hospitals being swamped by these "immigrants". We talked about real immigrants (those who do the request and paperwork thing and come to us legally) and how they were no problem. We wondered why those who break our laws should be rewarded. We heard about gunfire from "drug gangs" along our southern border. It was treated as if it were only "head shaking stuff, let's forget it" news. We heard about Homeland Security and how they admitted that, very likely, perhaps, maybe, terrorists were entering our country through our lack of real prevention. We heard about an attack on a preacher in Kansas City (by a female journalist) because he was not against abortions and proclaimed his belief through his church. And how he was called everything short of a dictator for his beliefs. It was gut wrenching to hear the calculated insults against a man who was only stating his beliefs. His action became using the old American tradition of stating your viewpoint. He was then vilified by people who wanted only their side heard. We also heard about trillions of dollars being pored into AIG and other conglomerates, but also heard that Chrysler motors would be shut down, which would cause untold job losses and one more step in the destruction of unionization. And unionization is what got workers health insurance, retirement benefits, vacations, reasonable pay, job security, job safety and many more benefits for the average man. You remember him don't you? You should. He's been called the backbone of America. We heard a snippet about a patriot who lowered a Mexican flag and replaced it with an American flag at our University. And was arrested for doing it. We learned that some rapper was shot somewhere. What we objected to was the use of the words "music" and "rap" in the same sentence. We heard the President remark that he was taking steps to "revive" the economy. While spending more billions of dollars. Then we heard that all the home foreclosures were slowing and stopping the economy. We were told that gasoline prices were increasing because the suppliers were expecting a surge of driving, as opposed to flying, for this summer's vacation. One announcer suggested they were simply gouging the public. Again. We heard about the more and more complicated shooting and warfare in Afghanistan and Pakistan. And about how the President wanted most of the troops out of Iraq within a year. And we wondered if our country was just switching battle areas for a while. What happened to my America?