Enough Ranting (For Now): A Timeline for What's Coming

I have done a lot of ranting and raving here on American Dirt. Like, A LOT.

However, I promised to bring everything from politics to pop-culture, and it’s time I started delivering on that promise.

Image found at http://www.aventureinwriting.com/tag/pop-culture/

For the next three days, starting August 23, 2014, I’ll be showcasing a How-To segment on world-building for my writer friends, story aficionados, and even tabletop gamers. I use these strategies in my own games and stories. Maybe, just maybe, it will help you too. Make sure to tune in tomorrow for part I of Worldbuilding: A Guide to Start With. Hope you enjoy!

Next week, I’ll delve into my thoughts on the new Dungeons and Dragons tabletop game, the 5^th Edition, if you will.

The week after that, I’ll be speaking on anime, what it means, what it is, and possibly what it should be.

After that, it might be time for another rant. I have to stick to my guns after all. Glad to have you here, thanks for reading. Let me know if you like the changes or not, and don’t be afraid to comment! I’ll respond, and ensure moderation, so NO BULLIES. Let’s respect each other here on American Dirt. 

Does America Deserve Freedoms and Liberty?

“Is security so dear, or wealth so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains & slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” –Patrick Henry, paraphrased

Liberty Already Dead?

On June 9, 2013, Edward Snowden did the unthinkable: he revealed the NSA’s spying activities on the American public. This act forced open the once willingly-blind eyes Americans have lived comfortably with for so long. We are spied upon, from every imaginable angle, by our own government.

What’s funny is, Snowden is praised and demonized for this action by the very public he purports to be trying to help. Why? We wanted to believe we were still in America, the one that works hard, to the bone, lubed by blood and sweat. Truth is, that isn’t the land we live in anymore.

Land of Slaves?

Before we were smacked with Snowden’s irrepressible truth, Occupy Wall Street attempted to steer us towards the realization on our own starting on September 17, 2011. With some success, OWS opened us up to reality. Unfortunately, it slammed so many messages at once that its landscape became non-traversable. The public didn’t know how to let all the new knowledge sink in, and thus, OWS went largely ignored.

A 9% unemployment rate during the Occupy movement sparked some to realize that the majority of Americans are cannon-fodder for “the elite.” This was the backbone of the many messages OWS held; but it just wasn’t enough to keep the movement going forward.

With a job market that seems unable to sustain the ever-growing labor force (mostly due to boomers being unable to retire, ever), both Occupy Wall Street and Snowden want us to believe that this is the governments fault. Oh, and the bankers. Let’s never forget how evil the corporate “banksters” have become.

You! You! You! And the No-Blame Game

“You keep taking our rights!” “You don’t have the ability to do that according to the constitution!” “You let corporate lobbyist tell you what laws to make!” It’s all true. Corporate America and the US government enjoy self-indulging each other with a lavishness most lovers never equate to in their lifetimes. One second though…how did they get to that point? Let me guess, it was just magic, or that’s just rich-business as usual, right? Wrong. The American people got fat, lazy, and dependent on the system. How many years has it been since you wrote (emailed?) your state’s Representative or Senator? The President? The mayor of your city? The fact is, the antagonists are all there; but there are no true protagonists in this story. There are no heroic patriots.

Who Deserves Freedom and Liberty?

We want to think there are…ourselves, whether individually or as “the 99%.” I detest this theory. Our forefathers didn’t build the Constitution for the lazy, the scared, or the system-dependent man. They built it for men who would protect it, by being bold, daring, and willing to lay their life down for liberty. These are the men who now own the wealth, not because they were born to it…but because the rest of us wouldn’t reach out and take it.

In 2000, there was an actual paradigm shift in wealth across America. The dot com era hit us like a locomotive train, and some new risk-takers became millionaires before this new bubble deflated.

Those risk-takers, once again, reached into the fountain of wealth and landed careers (and/or money) that would last a lifetime. Once again, the majority of the population wanted to stay safe, not take the risk, and came out no better or worse at the end.

America and Nature’s Law?

Life is a risk. Life owes nothing to you. Life eats the lazy and scared. Quit blaming the government for your woes when they pay your food-stamps, unemployment, and other amenities. Stop blaming the banksters. They don’t care about your poverty-level yearly income.

YOU are responsible for your own destiny and happiness. Our forefathers worked for every dime (or grand) they found themselves enjoying. They earned it by working, hard. To the bone. Lubed by blood and sweat.

What are you doing right now? Sitting on the couch eating potato chips bought with those food-stamps you demanded your government provide, so you don’t have to work? Or are you picking up the tool of a trade, carrying it, learning how to use it while you deal with every obstacle that tackles you, until you wield your tool with a professional level of proficiency?

The United States is messed up right now…but remember, you’re part of the system that let it go bad. It’s your choice: Fight for the freedoms you’ve lost. Keep those you still have. Or let them all slide out of your grasp and memory. Do you really deserve Freedom or Liberty? Whatever you decide to do, stop bitching about how it’s all set up against you.

“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporal safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” –Benjamin Franklin

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.