Please...spare me the drivel about the cops and the nurses and the teachers and the EMTs...
I know...they're all heroes...every day they do personally heroic things on a small scale that have a profound effect on the people with whom they come into contact.
I already know that. I appreciate them. I don't marginalize or denigrate. They are wonderful.
Really.
I'm not talking about them. They are virtually invisible. They matter...but...
Where are the true, real heroes? Where is Ike...?
We are treated to cheap imitations...in politics, in the media, in the movies...on the playing fields especially.
We used to salute our heroes...at every parade, at every lunch counter, in every train station.
We used to hold, in the highest esteem, the men (and sometimes... women) who did heroic things.
Charles Lindbergh (for the flying...not the Nazi thing)
Amelia Earhart (for the flying...not the gay thing)
Dwight Eisenhower (for WWII...not the Republican thing)
Jesse Owens (for the running...and for the Black thing...take that! Adolph...!)
Eleanor Roosevelt (for the social awareness...not the suffering wife thing...Hillary...)
Jonas Salk (for the vaccine...not the Jewish thing)
On and on...heroes...in everyday life...doing publicly extraordinary things...serving as true role models for all of us...young and old.
Now we have corrupt politicians with TV shows, and convicted felons with TV shows and former
cheating athletes with TV shows and blowhards with...TV shows.
I guess it's TV's fault...
I recently visisted with an old friend...a former Marine Sargeant with bars and stars from his several years in Viet Nam. A hero. A man who put his life on the line for me. He enlisted...in the Marine Corps! He fought for me...and you.
"Welcome Home Callie..."
A hero.
A real hero.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
Gnat's Entertainment!
We all wonder why the politicians in our midst continue to do the mind-boggling things that they do.
Corruption, sex scandals, wierd behavior...all of it paraded before us 24/7 and we still wonder why they do it..and why there is little or no accountability.
It is a no-brainer mes amis!
It is because, as a nation...as consumers of information...we all have ADD.
We just don't stay with an issue long enough for it to matter (unless, of course it involves O.J. Anna Nicole or Paula Abdul.)
Time and again we are treated to an improriety by a lawmaker or a transgression by a sports figure or an insensitivity by a celebrity. And time and again we tune in for a day or so...maybe a week...and then we're on to the next story. We're like junkies who are fine until the fix wears off and then we're rabid about finding the next one..regardless of the quality of the "drug."
We see no difference between the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq and whether or not Kate and Jon are happy or Paris is having sex (allegedly) or Simon is growling or Charles is evading taxes (allegedly) or Michael has a new TV show about dogs...
Whatever...NEXT!
So the reason why Charles Rangel is, as of this writing, still the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee is because Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the Democrats in Congress know full well that we won't remember the issue of Rangel's, allegedly, "interesting" financial dealings in November 2010.
We will be too absorbed with whatever new pop-culture scandal has graced our TVs or PCs...whether on Fox or ABC or PBS...or The Enquirer or The Times or The Post. It won't matter the medium, respected and legitimate or not... it will only matter the message.
If it is a political message come next November then it will matter... then...because it sure as hell doesn't matter now. If it involves our, so-called "heroes" (another blog at another time...another shame...) then we'll be focused on that...not anything that may really effect us as a culture.
Business as usual...for a population who could care less.
Shame on all of us!
Corruption, sex scandals, wierd behavior...all of it paraded before us 24/7 and we still wonder why they do it..and why there is little or no accountability.
It is a no-brainer mes amis!
It is because, as a nation...as consumers of information...we all have ADD.
We just don't stay with an issue long enough for it to matter (unless, of course it involves O.J. Anna Nicole or Paula Abdul.)
Time and again we are treated to an improriety by a lawmaker or a transgression by a sports figure or an insensitivity by a celebrity. And time and again we tune in for a day or so...maybe a week...and then we're on to the next story. We're like junkies who are fine until the fix wears off and then we're rabid about finding the next one..regardless of the quality of the "drug."
We see no difference between the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq and whether or not Kate and Jon are happy or Paris is having sex (allegedly) or Simon is growling or Charles is evading taxes (allegedly) or Michael has a new TV show about dogs...
Whatever...NEXT!
So the reason why Charles Rangel is, as of this writing, still the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee is because Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the Democrats in Congress know full well that we won't remember the issue of Rangel's, allegedly, "interesting" financial dealings in November 2010.
We will be too absorbed with whatever new pop-culture scandal has graced our TVs or PCs...whether on Fox or ABC or PBS...or The Enquirer or The Times or The Post. It won't matter the medium, respected and legitimate or not... it will only matter the message.
If it is a political message come next November then it will matter... then...because it sure as hell doesn't matter now. If it involves our, so-called "heroes" (another blog at another time...another shame...) then we'll be focused on that...not anything that may really effect us as a culture.
Business as usual...for a population who could care less.
Shame on all of us!
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
What's in a Name...Part II?
Imagine if, all of a sudden, all at once, everything in your world was new.
Not your shoes or your spouse or your job. Not your car or your house. Just the familiar old things to which, over a lifetime, you have become accustomed.
For example:
The United States of Avocado.
John Fennel and Paul Eisenstadt of the Beatles.
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Onion.
Onion, Bloody Onion.
Onion School.
Super Bowl Onion.
Get my drift?
The other day I was driving into New York City. It was a beautiful day. A few clouds and bright sun. Warm with a gentle breeze. UN Week. Lovely. As I approached from the Bruckner Expressway I saw a disturbing sight: "The RFK Bridge" Huh?
Where did The Triboro go? Oh...there is no Triboro Bridge anymore? Now it's "The RFK?" The Robert Francis Kennedy Bridge?
NO...IT'S NOT!!!!
It's the GD Triboro and I don't care who knows it! I am one of millions of New Yorkers, past and present, who grew up and have lived happily (never mind the ever increasing tolls..) with the Triboro (never mind "Part II"...I always take the Willis Avenue Bridge to avoid the ever increasing tolls...)
I don't want to call it The RFK. I want to call it The Triboro...and will, defiantly, continue to do so. And while I'm at it...it's Candlestick Park and Shea Stadium and The West Side Highway and ESSO, damnit...! And thank God Prince came back to Earth...I never could (you couldn't either...who are you kidding?) pronouce his symbol...
They took back Cape Canaveral after another Kennedy renaming...I'm sure Logan Airport in Boston is doomed to become Teddy Airport...
But let's rally around the flag boys...let's refuse to call it "The RFK."...let's hold the line...let's hold on to the dwindling past and stick with the good ol' Triboro... Come on...repeat after me...in unison..."The Triboro Bridge...The Triboro Bridge...THE TRIBORO BRIDGE!!!"
Thank you.
Not your shoes or your spouse or your job. Not your car or your house. Just the familiar old things to which, over a lifetime, you have become accustomed.
For example:
The United States of Avocado.
John Fennel and Paul Eisenstadt of the Beatles.
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Onion.
Onion, Bloody Onion.
Onion School.
Super Bowl Onion.
Get my drift?
The other day I was driving into New York City. It was a beautiful day. A few clouds and bright sun. Warm with a gentle breeze. UN Week. Lovely. As I approached from the Bruckner Expressway I saw a disturbing sight: "The RFK Bridge" Huh?
Where did The Triboro go? Oh...there is no Triboro Bridge anymore? Now it's "The RFK?" The Robert Francis Kennedy Bridge?
NO...IT'S NOT!!!!
It's the GD Triboro and I don't care who knows it! I am one of millions of New Yorkers, past and present, who grew up and have lived happily (never mind the ever increasing tolls..) with the Triboro (never mind "Part II"...I always take the Willis Avenue Bridge to avoid the ever increasing tolls...)
I don't want to call it The RFK. I want to call it The Triboro...and will, defiantly, continue to do so. And while I'm at it...it's Candlestick Park and Shea Stadium and The West Side Highway and ESSO, damnit...! And thank God Prince came back to Earth...I never could (you couldn't either...who are you kidding?) pronouce his symbol...
They took back Cape Canaveral after another Kennedy renaming...I'm sure Logan Airport in Boston is doomed to become Teddy Airport...
But let's rally around the flag boys...let's refuse to call it "The RFK."...let's hold the line...let's hold on to the dwindling past and stick with the good ol' Triboro... Come on...repeat after me...in unison..."The Triboro Bridge...The Triboro Bridge...THE TRIBORO BRIDGE!!!"
Thank you.
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