Are We Losing America?
If so, which America are we losing?
If we’re losing America, I think my generation is responsible. Those of us who entered our early to mid-20s during 1960s America.
We experienced things that today’s generation would hardly understand. Movies without sex, language, or chainsaws.
Rock and roll songs where everyone either died or committed suicide.
Drive-In movies, drag racing on city streets, no color TV, social media, computers, or video games.
It sounds boring when compared to the 24/7 sound bite world we inhabit today.
It didn’t cost $100 to see a baseball game, and they had bat night when they gave away full-sized bats.
Any chance of that happening today?
You drank soda or pop in the movies in glass bottles.
There was no such thing as talk radio other than maybe sports now and then. We said the Pledge of Allegiance every morning in school.
It was an honor to be picked to raise the flag that day, and we never let it touch the ground.
And there was discipline in the classroom.
Where Did We Go Wrong?
I mentioned earlier that my generation began the downward slide of American values and traditions.
The Vietnam War, hippies, music, the sexual revolution, and drugs all came together and waged an all-out assault on all the things that made America great.
We did that.
Things Americans respected for generations were now out of date, not hip, and not cool.
Burn your draft card burn your bra.
Tune in, turn on, and drop out. Don’t trust anyone over 30. If it feels good, do it — to use the vernacular of the 60s.
Personal responsibility is no longer required. There’s always a get-out-of-jail-free card somewhere.
Over time everyone became a victim.
The USA Was Far from Perfect
America was great in the 50s and 60s — if you were white.
But not if you were black — or a woman.
The Civil Rights Movement came along, and the Civil War metaphorically erupted all over again.
Billy clubs, police dogs, riots, and fire hoses, filled our black and white TV screens nightly.
Women could not serve on juries in all 50 states until 1973.
Women were prohibited from applying for credit in their own names without their husbands' permission until 1974.
Until 1978 women could be fired for becoming pregnant. Laws against sexual harassment in the workplace weren’t passed until 1980.
Today’s Youth Have No Idea How to Demonstrate or For What
Yes, the US was far from a perfect nation. We were going through post-war puberty. Growing up too fast in a world changing too fast for us to keep up with it.
What today’s 20-somethings fail to realize is that when we demonstrated to change something, we demonstrated together.
There were no 24/7 talking heads to give us our marching orders. OMG, we had to research and think for ourselves.
There was no political positioning because all saw the injustice without the aid of a political prism.
Did you think the riots during the 1968 Democrat National Convention in Chicago were a bunch of unhappy Republicans?
No — demonstrators showed up at both conventions that year. One just got out of hand.
No one during that time expected one political party to make a change. Both parties had to work together, compromise, and effect change.
Not anymore. Party-pandering votes are all that matters.
Now, before you demonstrate, you must read the political talking points to make sure it fits your ideology, and there is the problem.
If the cause doesn’t match your political narrative, your sign stays safely in the garage.
Right or wrong has no bearing. Only left or right carries any weight.
Some Final Thoughts on Losing America
Between 2000–08 I would drive past the county courthouse every Saturday on my way to the station to do my weekly radio show.
During those eight Bush years, there were always demonstrators on the courthouse lawn, good weather and bad, protesting the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Obama was elected, and I never saw them again. War must be perfectly OK if the right man is elected to the helm.
The war protest was just a ruse disguised as a Bush protest. If Obama’s the president, we can’t protest the guy we like, no matter what was happening in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Today’s demonstrations have no validity. We just use demonstrations as an excuse not to like whoever occupies the oval office at the time.
Right now, Biden is out of favor. In 2025 someone else will be in the crosshairs, and the streets will fill up again with political pawns.
Your cause, and you, have feet of clay if it’s strictly political.
The current target is the Supreme Court based on a leak before any official decision was rendered.
The leak turned out to be accurate.
No matter. We take to the streets to protest what the media tells us — not reality.
I guess we’ve officially moved on from statues.
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