Patriotism, Memorials and other fairy tales

We used to go to Boston more often.  I miss those trips. Listening to  "Inca Sons" play outside Borders, drinking a restorative latte, after hours in Filene's Basement searching for bargains.   They have opened Filene's Basement stores all over the country, we have one here, but it is not the same as actually going down into that maze of endless opportunities for that perfect purchase.  

I have stood on the USS Constitution, running my hands along the smooth sun warmed deck rails.  I have followed the "Freedon Trail" and stopped at the Granary Burial ground where signers of the Declaration of Independence are buried along with the the parents of Benjamin Franklin and Elizabeth "Mother" Goose.   I am always filled with pride and patriotism when I visit Boston.  The kind that makes you cry with gratitude that you are living in the greatest nation in the world.  Well....make that used to be living in the greatest nation in the world. 

I just don't get it.  We had it ALL and we had it NOW and we watched it taken away without so much as a whimper.  During the past eight years we have watched our independence and constitutional rights stripped away with barely a 30 second sound byte on what passes for news.  Habeas Corpus, gone without a sigh of indignation. Torture shown, verified and lost to the place they hide the things they would rather we did not focus on.  Real live human beings held without charges in sub human conditions at Guantanamo or prisons yet to be discovered.  WE the people have accepted that our phone calls, emails and other correspondence are read, listened to and can be used against us if we are lucky enough to actually have a trial.  WE the people have allowed our government to destroy a country that did nothing to us.  NOTHING.  WE the people have let war criminals go free and given our money to men who make obscene salaries.   WE the people have let the credit companies take us to the brink of financial destruction while continuing to borrow from other countries to increase our national debt.   Without a whimper.  Without any protest that could be heard if you were not present.  WE gave it away.

This week we celebrated Memorial Day.  I have no problem honoring the dead soldiers, I just have never been quite sure why we do that.  It might be a whole lot easier to honor them by keepting them alive to begin with.  We might give them adequate care when they come home, regardless of which war.  We could make sure the nursing homes full of the ones who came home from Viet Nam are actually fed and cared for properly. 

I wonder at all of the blood thirsty Hillary haters who foam at the mouth about a woman who chose to run for the presidency.  I suspect there will be equal vitriolic spewing for Obama when his time comes.  What are you people thinking?????   You have had eight years of the worst president EVER and you didn't say boo.  

The tales we hear daily of the latest gaffe, She said, he said, they did, all read by mindless attractive talking heads, or complicated by the rantings of pundits just sure the next poll will prove them right just once.  WE the people listened to them to get us into this war and now you want to listen to them about who to elect president?

I love a good fairy tale, but if you all don't mind I think I will stick with Elizabeth "Mother" Goose 1665-1758.  http://www.mothergoose.com/Rhymes/Azrhymes.htm.  Many of which are no less scary, but I do know how they come out.

Ashes ashes, we all fall down.