One America (2)

Today I am in Erie, PA, after travelling through the heartland yesterday. It was fascinating to see all of the houses along US 224 for a good poke of the journey. It was lush, with alternating fields of wheat, corn, and soybeans. Victorian/many gabled homes with rocking chairs on their porches, adorned with lawns of orange lillies, sage, and of course, American flags either on the lawn, or on a flag pole just below the awning.

I saw some patches of the other America we are less comfortable with: the ones with deterioriating shutters, roofs, and rusted bellied cars that haven't been used in years. Yet, I saw no self-pity, and quite a few kids were enjoying bike rides. One fellow paralleled us quite a way in Anderson, IN as we had to stop at several lights going towards downtown and looking for I-69. We waved at him and he waved back, and all 3 of us were smiling. (For readers who don't know, my spouse, JRZ (not to be confused with JRE, lol), is an ardent cyclist. As I type, he is watching the Tour de France on OLN. )

I wore a One America/Edwards 2008s button that NCDem gave me and the same one I wore when I saw JRE a week ago today. I was proud to wear it, and not once did I get a frowny face, but wasn't really asked it either. I was good with that, as I got to be a passive campaigner, but more important, a traveller travelling in my country, and seeing how we are one...especially today, Independence Day.

Truthout's William Rivers Pitt wrote a good editorial entitled "The Example," referring to Ben Franklin, who risked his life many times by signing the 3 most important pieces of paper: Declaration of Independence, Treaty of Paris, and the Constitution. I agree that a revolution is risky business. But many forces were at work, including the French who were also tired of a non-caring monarch, whose wife, could have her cake and eat it too, as the poor wondered aimlessly on the streets. But their revolution became reign of terror, much like what is happening in Iraq.

My point here is that while I am unhappy with the monarchist government we hired, in rewarding clever or exploitation over hard work, I have to step back and say that still, I'd rather live here than anywhere else (exception would Down Under, but that would be only temporarily). I was born a patriot, on this day 47 years ago, and I will stay to fight for the One America our founding fathers, like Ben Franklin, in which the government will work equally (or as close as possible) for all of us. As the bumper sticker says, dissent among us is most patriotic thing to do.



Special thanks to Townhomegirly at OAC who started a diary to wish me happy birthday, and to the other OACers who wished me happy birthday either on the Transparency diary I put up last weekend, or privately.

Onward to Cooperstown..to keep exploring One America and see the museum of our favorite past-time, the National Baseball Hall of Fame.




Tags: One America, Townhome Girly,William River Pitt, John Edwards, Joe Zumalt, Benny's World, birthdays, patriots