I'm Just an American

The greatest country in the world…not so much anymore.  I’m living proof: in 1999, my SAT scores showed a young man ready to take over the planet.  I scored better than 99% of American juniors in English, 89% in Science, and 83% in Mathematics.  However, by 2013, I’ve never graduated college, I can still only speak one language with any effluence, and I’m working up my fourth career path the hard way.  What happened?

The rest of the world seems to believe America is just lazy.  We are too busy living in luxury to bother with the gritty stuff like education, especially beyond high school.  To an extent, they’re absolutely right.  America has gotten lazy about everything from how to handle healthcare to what happens on Capitol Hill.  We don’t pay attention to our own country, much less anyone else’s.  In that regard, it’s easy to understand why arrogant and self-centered often describe us Westerners.

There is another side to our “laziness.”  We are busy, but not everyone is busy living it up on some New York skyscraper.  Oh, sure, we’ve got it kicked compared to third world countries; I’m not arguing that at all.  If it were otherwise, America would have long since lost its world-power status.  No…I’m talking about the America that works hands to the bone.  The average American books it hard to make his dollars for bread and milk, gas and electricity.  We’re so busy worrying about the next bill that we fear trying to get a higher education.  We’ve got kids to care for.  We’ve got a car payment.  We’ve got debt we’ll never get out from under before death.  So much for being #1.

From that, America is doomed, right?  Perhaps not.  According to Thomas Friedman, Americans are “just too dumb to quit.”  You know, he’s absolutely right.  We keep moving forward, attempting one thing after another until we settle into something we’re willing to put our blood, sweat, and tears into.  From big business and global marketing to indie-publishing and mom ‘n’ pop shops, Americans find their own reason to exist…just like everybody else on the planet.

I’m sorry…no honestly…I’m sorry I don’t know a second language.  I’m sorry if I don’t understand why England drinks tea all the time.  I’m even sorry that I don’t understand the cultural significance of French women not shaving.  You know, when I’m less busy paying the bills, I’ll learn French and come visit you in Paris.  I’ll drink tea on your patio.  I’ll safari on the plains of Australia.  I just need a little something in my pocket first, preferably earned from the greatest country in the world.

The “Top 10 Controversial Topics about the US,”  by Al Davenport, inspired this post. There are a few good points, though I don’t agree with everything (it is controversial topics, after all).  Thank you for reading, and please leave any comments below, regardless of your nationality!

James Neal is constantly searching for the next paycheck.  He hasn’t had a pizza in over three weeks, and it’s about to drive him crazy.  If you see him, could you maybe spare him a pepperoni Hot-Pocket?  If not, at least visit and perhaps follow him on Twitter, @BloodandBlade.  He also has an author page on Facebook here.

Lessons from America's "Darkest Day"

With all that I owned, I traversed the streets of Phoenix, AZ, making my way to the Greyhound bus station on America’s darkest day: September 11, 2001.  I was leaving Phoenix for reasons beyond my control.  Simply put, I needed to get home to Missouri (again), in order to get my head straight.

I wasn't paying attention.  Two times before reaching the bus station, someone said something about America being under attack.  If I’m honest with you…I figured they were talking about some political so-and-so going at some political point of interest.  I didn't care.  I was caught up in my own world, my own problems, and my own life.

Upon entering the Greyhound hub, I noticed all the TV’s were on the same channel.  It looked to be a news feed, but the images on the screen weren't real…planes were crashing into buildings in New York?  Ha!  Never gonna happen, folks.  Boy, how wrong I was that day.

The Hardest Lesson

An attack on America was the farthest thing, I think, from anybody’s mind up until the first plane struck the Trade Center buildings.  A complete surprise.  Weren't we…invulnerable?  Who would dare?  We were the WORLD police.  Our military was the best.  We had every possible attack angle covered.  No, we didn't trust our government, but they did protect us from all the other government and military boogeymen, right?

Well, we know the answer now.  We can be targeted.  We can be hurt.  We can have scars eleven years deep carved into our society.  That was America’s lesson.  The one we had forgotten after so many years of nigh perfect safety from foreigners. 

However, we breathed in deep and…

Beat the Chest

The screams still haunt New York’s collective mind, I’m sure, along with the shattering of glass, steel, and concrete on a sunny day.  At one point though, the noises did stop, and so did the tears…just long enough to come out of the shock and demand retribution.

Retribution…another term we had become unfamiliar with using.  Oh, I know, the movies revolve around the idea, but in reality, our real world?  It was too strong a term.  Revenge, yeah, we’d seen revenge.  Retribution being demanded on a countrywide scale?  Really, what else could President George Bush do but answer America's call?  Say what you will about the politics that followed into the war…there was no other decision.  Any other person in office would have done the exact same thing…or America would have seen them step down.

So we beat our chests, we beat our drums, we looked at maps to know precisely where our troops were going and we pinned tacks into Afghanistan.  We cursed turbans and robes and spit out Al Qaeda like a fluent curse word.  We sang war songs; we cheered our celebrities who whole-heartedly agreed with taking out aggression on the terrorists.  Then, as a Nation, we watched…

The Rockets’ Red Glare

Don’t deny it.  You know that infra-red glow coming off the TV screen as well as every other American.  We WATCHED those bombs go off.  Over, and over, and over, and over again.  Penance, RETRIBUTION, was ours…until finally…

Our Humanity Returns

As a nation, we tired of the bombs.  The death statistics weren't exciting anymore.  Our public enemy #1 still hadn't been captured, or killed.  We’d done our crying, our chest-beating, and public outcry.  We’d watched so many bombs we could almost name them on sight.  Our anger was subsided…not gone…but it was time to move on.

We started talking other things: sports, the weather, bad reality TV shows.  We started DOING things again.  Other things became important, over time…gay rights, how our own government was doing things- and how they should do things; we saw in people the best that we knew how to see.

Unfortunately, we also saw the evil in certain kinds of people…even if it wasn't there.  While intolerable, nothing is perfect, no one person or country is.  Never will be.  Because we aren't invulnerable, and we can be scarred.  America knows that, now; and we will…

NEVER FORGET

The sacrifice of our troops, our firefighters, the bravery of America as a whole for continuing to live an American life because we know, we KNOW… how important it is not to let any enemy force us to be anything but what we are.  That means accepting the good, the bad, the ugly, the bad politics, the good politics, the awesome movies and the bad reality TV shows (that still haven’t disappeared).  The straight people, gay people, interracial and special people.

And you know what?  Despite the horror that was 9/11, here’s the thing: in that moment, we fully understood that all must be accepted.  All must come together under one banner, one flag.  That’s slowly been eroding from our practice, again.  NEVER FORGET that we know better.  We've been through it, we shared our sorrows already.  Always remember that:

United We Stand, Divided We Fall.

James Neal is a professional freelancer and, honestly, pioneered the term “Greyhound Therapy.”  It is from his bus trips that he developed his sense of person, and was forced to understand that you must take the “good with the bad.”  You can find his page on Facebook here, or on Twitter @BloodandBlade.  Stop by and say hello…so he’ll stop begging to spend the night…!

THIS WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED ON ROOSTERWORDS.COM, IN 2012. WHILE ROOSTERWORDS NO LONGER EXISTS, I COULD NOT LET THIS POST DIE IN THE ETHEREAL GRAVEYARD. 

Responsibilities of Being an American, Post 9/11

The twelfth anniversary of America’s oft-quoted “darkest day” has arrived, and gone. Rather than get overly sentimental, I believe it’s time to take a kick in the nuts. Why? Because we’re living a life given by men and women who developed a land of the free, and created a home of the brave…and we are no longer either of those. We’ve given our freedoms away, and continue to sit in silent, petrified fear because of a single, ugly moment in our recent history. We don’t live up to the example set by our forefathers- and if we do, we are labeled as misfits of society, extremists, or even, ironically, domestic terrorists.

Cracked.com goes far in realizing exactly how exuberant anti-terrorism is in modern American society. Fear locks us down the moment we hear “terrorist” or “terrorism.”

But I have a different point to bring up. What responsibility is held by the general population of America? Why should we stand up for anything? Because being American begins with bravery. You were born of it, and are expected to act from a stance of fearlessness.

9/11/01 taught us a lesson: terrorists are real. Post 9/11 holds a different lesson, one modern Americans are far too willing to ignore: We are willing to give away freedoms, hard earned in blood by our forefathers, for a largely fictional sense of security.

What’s your responsibility, post 9/11?

·       Begin with Integrity: America was built on a code of specific moral values and unimpaired solidarity. Represent those values, and stop fighting over stupid shit like religion, homosexuality, and women’s rights. Instead, fight for freedom, bravery, and a transparent relationship between our government and its people.

·       Realize You Control the Government: No, not as a single person…but come together as a people and take action when necessary. That’s how the Constitution was built, and the only way to enact good changes. There are nearly 314 million people calling the US home as of 2012. If we worked together in demanding our government perform a certain way, we would win every time.

·       Be Educated: A simple high-school diploma doesn’t make you educated. Neither does a college degree. Real education is found in the real world, in learning from every experience you have, and applying what you learn to what you do next. This also involves thinking critically, and solving problems on your own.

·       Own Up: The world doesn’t owe you anything. You were born into an unforgiving world, a world that has starved, killed, and tortured its inhabitants since the beginning of time. If anything, you owe the world for allowing your existence. So own up, live your life to make the world better, even if you affect only a small percentage of it. Stop expecting everything to be handed to you on a silver platter. Eventually, you’ll find that the more you put in generally returns more back to you. This means hard work, blood, sweat, and tears must come from you. That’s the reality, and it always has been.

·       Be Brave in the Face of Fear: 9/11 scared the hell out the American people. We weren’t invincible anymore. And while we got mad, most of that anger was spent in fruitless, useless, activity. War, hatred within our lands, and fear overtook the American population. We separated ourselves from our most formidable post, solidarity. And it continues today. Come back together, have the bravery to stand with those in your neighborhood, your county, state, and union. That’s how the old guard did it, and that is the mind-frame we need to return to.

There’s a reason to be proud of being American. That pride stands from our history; and it’s time we start earning that pride again.