Seemingly we all, every man, woman and child among us, want to get "it" back. We Need it back. It needs to come back to us--and soon. It left us or seemingly melted away last summer in town halls, but its been slowly disappearing for well over a decade. Know what we're missing? All of us who pine for the place we thought we knew, but now realize is NOT there anymore, at least not intact anymore. Jump down, for its a simple thing, really. I just don't have any idea HOW to get it back.
Why, its Our Country. We want OUR damned country back, the one we all thought we knew, yet woke up recently only to find it hijacked. Of course They want it back to, but what They want never really existed, because way back then it was different in too many ways to make it the Country that it finally became....or almost became before reactionary forces decided to impose a view of the country last seen through the eyes of Ozzie, Harriet and their children, including lil' Beaver & Opie. You know, the "view" as it existed back then. The one with the tree-line streets, neat yards and such grand diversity as occasionally allowing a thickly accented Italian to be onscreen with others.
What happened to My Country? When I was young, I was told My Country was a shining example of one of the only truly Egalitarian places on the planet, in BOTH senses of the word. Some of us growing up in the '60's and '70s must have believed enough of that meme, that our subsequent protests shamed the Congress enough to actually enact legislation enacting such policies, or at least attempting to.
My Country was not and should not be a place where elected officials call for people to have the right to discriminate in any way they wish based upon private ownership of property. I mean, politicians should have a right to advocate for such things, but no one in My Country would ever actually elect such cretins.
My Country didn't used to be one where 85% of assets were held by 20% of the population, or the top one percent had over 1/3 of all the wealth. My country did not have Tea Party protests when proposals to collect a few percent more in taxes to take care of the neediest among us were broached....and that was in times when taxes were much, much higher than they are now.
In my country the Managers were paid appropriately for their skills, not their ability to Rape, Plunder and Pillage for fun and profit. Once you were rewarded by the community around you for bringing decent paying jobs into the community, not enriching yourself by taking them OUT. Where a "good union job" was not derided as some type of crooked scheme to make enough to pay your bills and still put away enough to collect a pension large enough to live comfortably each month. Today such things, in Thier Country, are derided as "excessive" and promises made by Management at the bargaining table requiring bailouts. Like it is the employees fault. In MY Country its Management's fault for promising more than they could deliver.
My Country didn't used to be one that used preemptive war as a policy, or torture or even murder of its own citizens overseas. Instead, we came to the aid of other countries--even such countries as France, who suffer from the disease of socialism. We gave refuge from thugs and murders to those who needed it, we didn't seek such barbarians to do our dirty work for us.
My Country didn't used to be the one where the ever consolidating media is fast becoming an oligarchy seemingly bent on a Goebbels-style fear campaign to convince us that becoming more equal is bad and undesirable. Instead, we are told that we should all bend our shoulders a little bit harder into that grindstone so that just maybe we too will become billionaires. It still is the American dream isn't it? We can all make a billion, just ask Rush, Glenn, Sean and the other pundits who manged to get theirs--mostly by pulling the wool over the eyes of those who don't have a clue it isn't going to happen for them, but who still Believe.
Yeah, I'd like MY Country back, the one I thought was the Land of the Free and the Brave. The one I volunteered to fight for, back before we paid professional people to fight for us. My Country was one that felt everyone should take a turn in the barrel. Such a policy seemed to keep the wars much shorter, as people saw other people they knew being maimed and killed instead of the faceless "Troops" insulated from the rest of society.
My Country might be just as much a nostalgic mental construct as the place THEY want back, but I know damn well MY Country is the one cited in all the text books. Except maybe in Texas where the textbooks might actually show Their Country now instead of mine<sigh>.
Yeah, I want My Country back, the one I not only want to live in, but one I want all to have a chance to live in. The one anyone would be proud to live in, not just a privileged minority who want to keep it all for themselves.
Give it back to Us damn it, NOW.