July 4^th

Today is July 8^th. July 4^th came and went. There was some pomp and circumstance. If northing else firecrackers and fireworks went off. For those that had left over fireworks July 5^th was also a good day to set them off.

I had a mixed political upbringing. My parents knew nothing about international current events. My mother was involved with murders and that type of thing. We never talked politics. When my whole family got together for the holidays no one ever talked about politics. The only one in my family that was involved with politics was my grandfather, Jack. Jack read the paper diligently and he watched the news. He had opinions about politicians and politics. But Jack was a contradiction. He also read the National Inquirer. In the early 60's the stories that ran in the National Enquirer were;

“I MARRIED AN ALIEN”

“BABY BORN WITH TWO HEADS”

"MOM USES SON'S FACE FOR AN ASHTRAY,"

"MADMAN CUT UP HIS DATE AND PUT HER BODY IN HIS FREEZER,"

"Eva Fedorchuk battered her husband's face to a bloody pulp with a pop bottle. Then she told the police he'd cut himself while shaving."

"HAIR DYE HAS MADE ME BALD FOR LIFE."

I Cut Out Her Heart And Stomped On It!"

"I Ate My Baby!"

“In the early days, Enquirer staffers were infamous for fabricating incredible stories to create sales enticing headlines, attracting customers that still held the naive belief that 'they couldn't print it if it wasn't true.”

Jack did not discuss politics, rather he told you his opinion and that was that. When I was in elementary school from the third grade up every week we had to cut out an article from the NY Times and discuss it. I remember finding that annoying and boring. I also found the NY Times wordy.

Based on my upbringing I had little interest in history nor politics nor current events. However, sometime during the 60's this all changed. I became political. It was important to me to be political. I became intellectual. It was important for me to be intellectual.

Now it is 2009. For a while I was a news junkie. Then one day I became nauseous and started to hate anyone that delivered the news on CNN, MSNBC and Fox. I was okay with the nightly news but I rarely watched that due to time it was on. I read the local paper but I refused to watch any cable news channels.

So what the hell does this have to do with July 4^th anyways. Well I felt no patriotism toward the US this July 4^th. Rather I felt our country is out of control. Honesty, integrity and concern for the citizens seems to be a nonsense concept. The mess our country is in is unbelievable to me. So many things have been overlooked and who was minding the store? Obama is moving too slow. He has a Democratic Congress and a Democratic Senate so why isn't he taking charge. What is this nonsense that he wants to work with the Republicans. That is minor compared to the problems of the US at this point. Fixing and repairing is tantamount, not making friends. When Obama picked Rahm Emanuel the news made a big deal about this. They claimed Rahm was the type of guy that believed in the “fierce urgency of now.” They said Rahm was tough and would do the the stuff that most did not have the stomach for.

“Rahmbo" is said to have mellowed over the years, but that's relative. That's from a starting point of pugnaciousness the likes of which even the hardened politicos of Washington don't see every day.

Emanuel comes to the job with a reputation for getting things done — a focused mind in Clinton's chaotic terms and, after a lucrative detour into banking, an architect of his party's takeover of Congress in the 2006 elections and its further advances Tuesday.

He is competitive, hardworking, hard-charging and street smart," said Rep. Thomas Reynolds of New York, who ran the Republicans' House election committee in 2006 when Emanuel was in charge of the Democratic counterpart. "At the end of the day, you send him to get a mission done, he'll get it done."

When I heard Obama picked Rahn I thought the White House was going to take charge and make things happen. In the first few weeks Obama did make some changes and then Obama went silent. Then he became wishy washy and started to disappoint groups that supported him. Now he is disappointing me.

Of course Obama can turn out to be a mover and a shaker but on this Fourth of July he is a humdrum. On this Fourth of July I think the US is in the toilet. So I do not feel patriotic. Rather I feel like I want to be an expatriate. I am all dressed up but I have nowhere to go.