It's in pockets, certain pockets of people I mean. Certain hearts. Not overall. I still believe in joy hope and promise because it's what I chose to believe even when it's ugly and mean. Call me naive, but I still hope.

Mama, not for nothing but, where have you been for the last 16 years? The awful ideological split this country has been enduring for what seems like forever now. Let's just say the real world has come to our little OS cocoon of peace and love and like-mindedness. For better or for worse. Now get back to work.

xox

Life is weird. Life is hard. Life need not be so complicated. Peace and love sometimes gets lost in the storm of opinion and arrogance. Let us all get back to what is real. Come together right now.... ~R~

"Was politics always like watching a bunch of third graders pulling tantrums because they may not be getting their way?"

I remember when it was more like sixth garders pulling tantrums, but that was a long time ago..:P

I don't think America has ever been close to really being such a country.

"Where is the love people? Where is the peace? Where is the joy, hope and promise that was once America?"

As a "people," back to the pilgrims, we were a pretty nasty group. The colonists started the scalping thing, after all. Then we systematically committed genocide. We didn't reserve our cruelty to Native Americans, no the colonists were brutal to their women, indentured servants, and of course, lets not forget hundreds of years of slavery. Decidedly not nice. All very ironic since supposedly many of these pilgrims who sough to colonize America were themselves fleeing religious persecution.

Lets not also forget that for a very long time, women were considered property, yes, just like slaves. Not only couldn't they vote but they often couldn't own or inherit property. Most women were not even taught to read, reminiscent of the laws against educating slaves in the South. And there was no such thing as marital rape, sex was a duty. Don't even get me started on the murder of women thought to be "witches."

Seeking to cleanse our country of it's native inhabitants we gave them blankets impregnated with smallpox.

Our "successful" plutocrats in the mid 19th and early 20th century created a business model that proved a great source of easy money, sweat shops! Aptly named, there women and children labored in unsafe conditions for long hours for next to nothing.

Skipping ahead a few decades we have nuclear weaponry, we are still the only ones who have deliberately dropped not one, but two, and on cities populated largely by civilians.

Vietnam was pretty nasty too. Napalm and My Lai the exclamation points. Oh yeah, then nearly everyone in the country treated the poor surviving soldiers who returned from that war like pariahs. They were drafted for fucks sake.

Corporations are the ultimate example of a matricide, or patricide if you will. These organized predator systems that turn on those who make their existence possible by screwing them over. Or poison people and try to cover it up. Love Canal ring a bell, or did you happen to see Erin Brokovich?

Show me a place and significant time period when peace, joy, love and promise existed in America, apart from a long weekend in upstate New York more than three decades ago.

::sigh::

I don't know. Were there really "good" old days? I just don't know.

you know, ablonde has it pretty much right. although the idea of the united states has at times rung with echoes of what you seek, mama.

count me among those who still cling to the idea that the idea could one day come to pass.

I think they were asking the same questions in 1861.
This had to be said -- thanks for saying it so eloquently.
R

mama, I may be wrong, and I usually am, but there are some great people in this country that are not loony liberals or raging republicans. This country is almost evenly split, so the greasy wheels are going to get the grease. But there are plenty of people you can have a conservation with without killing them. A lot of people don't blog, or write, or even go the town hall meeting looking like idiots. The media only reports the bad, as usual. There are some great people in this country that our veterans are dying to protect, so look around. People are laughing and holding hands like they always have, and always will. There are people in this country who are just nice. I think you are one, and a lot of people on OS too! There are assholes everywhere, and they make good press!

What scanner said. I have hope, and many I know do. It's what keeps us going. :)

I hate love. Ditto for hope, joy, and promise. And happiness. And joy. Did I say that? Can't stand joy. It's usually noisy, and funny. And any kind of warmth at all. It's irritating, like a rash. And spicy mustard. I hate spicy mustard. I'm allergic to it. And it tastes like something a cat would regurgitate. And Jews.

BOKO

As one of the really old snails under this rock I can say without fear that the crap has been coming down for at least the 50 years that I have been active both in politics and in civil service. There was a veneer in the Senate where people said the most awful things and acted like they were always good buddies, but the vitriol was there nevertheless.

It was there over Truman, over McArthur, with Joe McCarthy, with JFK and LBJ, both of whom I worked for. It was there with Nixon and Watergate, there over Vietnam and Iran Contra, and Grenada, and Reagan and Clinton, and even old Jimmy Carter got his nose rubbed in it a couple of times.

We are a crass nation. Have been, and likely will be.

The question is what will OS be? Can it be better than the lowest common denominator? I pray that it can. It has been before.

Monte

Me too, Polly. Thx. Kellylark, I know politics will always be corrupt, but I've been feeling it now between friends. Perhaps I hope too much. And I've been working girl! hehehehe Robin, right back at ya! xoxoxo Chuck, always love what you say. Peace my friend. xoxoxo Nanatehay, I know politics will always be a circus, but I question when did I join in? Ablonde, so true my friend. I just wish as a progressed country, we could keep it together on the same block. It is a reach, I know, but like Polly, I am hopeful. Thanks for visiting. :) Owl, Lonnie, I wish us all peace and joy now and forever. John, thank you. :) Scanner, yes there are amazing people out there - and you are one of them. Thank you for reminding me. Sweetfeet, so true. :) Boko, peace be with you. Monte, my thoughts exactly. Can we still be friends here on OS no matter where we stand? And even if we do disagree, do we have to turn on one another and speak with such hostility? I, too, have given into the hostility at times. I can tell you it never makes me feel good. I'm so glad you're around. :)