America the Beautiful?
Saw a statement attributed to Willie Nelson. Supposedly he said that the song America the Beautiful used to make him feel patriotic. He sings a beautiful rendition of it.
He said that now it makes him a little sick to his stomach.
Homeland is a fictional show.
The plot line covers a bombing of a school in the Middle East where a lot of innocent children died. It's fictional, to be sure, but if you think a little, it makes you sick to think that it has somewhere happened in real life.
Newsflash: America isn't always right when it comes to war.
The recent elections threw the Democrats aside. That's sort of inconsequential because as I looked at the map as to how folks voted I was sure of one thing:
There's a tremendous difference in thinking between the red and blue. The united part of it all seems a bit impossible. The hate between the two parties of people - who are actually on the same side of things, or are supposed to be - is real.
That's a bit of what makes Willie's stomach churn.
And as I write that I'm thinking that if what Willie Nelson had said gets much traction there will be people out there who call him something clever like:
Libtard.
Or they'll tell him to take his pot-smoking-ass the hell out of the country if he doesn't love it anymore.
But that's not what Willie means, I don't think.
The song speaks of the beauty from one coast to another.
Are we obliterating that beauty?
Are we killing off the natural resources?
Will fracking ruin our drinking water?
Are we consuming so much that we don't care about whether or not the country stays beautiful?
Why are we murdering our fellow citizens at such an alarming rate?
Why do people still struggle to find food here?
I don't have the answers to any of those questions.
Yet I know what Willie means. I can feel the acid rising.
Does that make me a libtard too?
Of course, the great divide has us thinking of answers on both the red and blue sides.
But are we too far gone to make the right choices?
I still believe that America is infinitely beautiful. I have no desire to even travel anywhere else.
I have been on the beaches of Miami. I have crossed the Golden Gate a thousand times. I go to New York City a couple of times a year. From L.A. to N.Y. and all the spaces in between I think of the beauty within.
Yet America is more than just a plot of land.
It's about the people who wander the streets, fish in the streams, ski down the mountains.
And still have the freedom to find liberty and happiness.
Still a beautiful place to be and perhaps my angst is all just because I'm more cognizant of some of the scary parts of it.
Perhaps we will still prosper above all else.
My stomach doesn't exactly churn when I hear Willie or anyone else sing America the Beautiful, but down deep I hope that we figure a whole bunch of things out.
Quickly.
Before we throw up all over ourselves.
He said that now it makes him a little sick to his stomach.
Homeland is a fictional show.
The plot line covers a bombing of a school in the Middle East where a lot of innocent children died. It's fictional, to be sure, but if you think a little, it makes you sick to think that it has somewhere happened in real life.
Newsflash: America isn't always right when it comes to war.
The recent elections threw the Democrats aside. That's sort of inconsequential because as I looked at the map as to how folks voted I was sure of one thing:
There's a tremendous difference in thinking between the red and blue. The united part of it all seems a bit impossible. The hate between the two parties of people - who are actually on the same side of things, or are supposed to be - is real.
That's a bit of what makes Willie's stomach churn.
And as I write that I'm thinking that if what Willie Nelson had said gets much traction there will be people out there who call him something clever like:
Libtard.
Or they'll tell him to take his pot-smoking-ass the hell out of the country if he doesn't love it anymore.
But that's not what Willie means, I don't think.
The song speaks of the beauty from one coast to another.
Are we obliterating that beauty?
Are we killing off the natural resources?
Will fracking ruin our drinking water?
Are we consuming so much that we don't care about whether or not the country stays beautiful?
Why are we murdering our fellow citizens at such an alarming rate?
Why do people still struggle to find food here?
I don't have the answers to any of those questions.
Yet I know what Willie means. I can feel the acid rising.
Does that make me a libtard too?
Of course, the great divide has us thinking of answers on both the red and blue sides.
But are we too far gone to make the right choices?
I still believe that America is infinitely beautiful. I have no desire to even travel anywhere else.
I have been on the beaches of Miami. I have crossed the Golden Gate a thousand times. I go to New York City a couple of times a year. From L.A. to N.Y. and all the spaces in between I think of the beauty within.
Yet America is more than just a plot of land.
It's about the people who wander the streets, fish in the streams, ski down the mountains.
And still have the freedom to find liberty and happiness.
Still a beautiful place to be and perhaps my angst is all just because I'm more cognizant of some of the scary parts of it.
Perhaps we will still prosper above all else.
My stomach doesn't exactly churn when I hear Willie or anyone else sing America the Beautiful, but down deep I hope that we figure a whole bunch of things out.
Quickly.
Before we throw up all over ourselves.
Comments