Reconstructing America

RECONSTRUCTING AMERICA


Think back to when you were, lets say, 20 years old. Come on now, put your feet up on the old La-Z-Boy recliner and let your mind meander back to the days when you were an indestructible know-it-all that had all of the answers to all of life’s vexing problems. Perhaps a strong libation or two would help the recall process along, notwithstanding that the tasty chemical depressant might even help dull the edge of age-related embellishment of the actual facts and sharpen the honesty of the recollection as well. Are you back to the glory years yet? Ok, don’t dwell on that fantastic red headed babe you almost got next to or the muscled-up incredibly suave and debonair hunk that danced with you at the sock-hop, focus instead on what you thought life had in store for you. You know, perhaps you would be an airline pilot, with all of the prestige of flying happy people to and fro on vacation or powerful people to incredibly important business meetings that relied on your fantastic cool flying skill to save the day. Or perhaps, you would become a world famous female Medical Doctor that due to your incredible knowledge and expertise would not only cure the sick and balm the hurt, you would pave the way to expand the horizons of all females of great character to reach beyond the glass ceiling and fulfill their complete potential. Of course, there is the possibility that you were one of those who didn’t have a clue as to what you would become down the line, but you should had at least some sort of fuzzy vision of where you thought life would eventually take you. So the moment of truth has arrived, now that you have gotten “further down the line”, did you end up where you thought would be after gravity has taken its toll and too many brewskis have made their indelible mark? I would be willing to wager General Motors Corporation’s future that where you are now is probably not where you thought or hoped you would be when the blush of youth was on your cheeks. On thing for sure, how you and I got to where we are was not the result of some incredibly complex conspiracy by unknown people or entities. Instead, our life’s journey was facilitated and enabled by our heredity, parental training, formal education, personality, culture, society and the countless decisions made by us and others that affected the course of our journey into geezerdom. I like to think that our country, America, is very much like a singular citizen because, after all, a country is little more than the sum of its collective people. So the journey of our country into maturity (as reflected by our evolving culture) is no doubt similar to that of a singular citizen making his or her way towards maturity, aided and abetted by life’s circumstance and happenstance, i.e., the country’s journey into maturity is not as a result of an incredibly complex conspiracy by unknown people or entities, it is the result of the same forces that enables and facilitates its least indivisible part. Suffice to say, where our country is now is probably not what the founding fathers envisioned and codified into the Constitution when the blush of youth was on our country as well. When our country was young and vigorous, our culture reflected our youth by being a personally responsible and self-reliant people that resulted in a “Can-do” society that could do anything it believed in. The Constitution was the country’s holy foundation that enabled our youthful sprit to soar and was not subject to interpretation by the shifting winds of whim or fancy that has so transformed the holy document into what it has become today. Somewhere along the line, we have been transformed from a personally responsible and self-reliant people into a timid and hesitant people that can no longer build a highway system or pursue the cause of simple justice and has perpetrated an entitlement culture that now spreads responsibility for everything to everyone. (I will bet that if a scholarly study was done, it would be determined that the speed of a country’s decent into mediocrity is proportional to the number of lawyers it has.) The present day entitlement culture is now a fact and the likelihood of a return to our youthful culture and Constitutional foundations is as unlikely as an individual’s unwinding the years back into youth. So hang-on American, the reconstruction of America is in full force and the youth of today will inherit a American quite unlike what was envisioned in her youthful days.