Independence Day, 2008

Creative Forums Creative Writing
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Independence Day, 2008

O’ sweet land of liberty.
Let freedom ring!
Freedom!

Freedom from work,
and from risk.
Freedom from having to
negotiate my own paycheck,
and vacation time,
and from having to decide where to spend
my disposable income.
Please take it off my wringing hands and
fling it as alms to those whom you,
in your wisest ways,
deem more deserving.

Freedom. From having to decide –
all on my own –
what to smoke,
where to smoke,
where not to smoke,
what to eat,
where to eat,
what not to eat.
What to build my house out of,
where to build it.
Oh, grant me the do nots,
to free me from the do’s.

Freedom. From having to know
the daunting and exhausting lessons of history.
Simplify and clean it all with the
pure water of revision and political
correctness.

Freedom. From the burdensome choices of
meaningful political candidates in
meaningful political campaigns about
meaningful political issues.
Free me from the onerous dialogue of meaning.

Freedom. From isolationism.
Put our armies everywhere.
Free us from that ancient envy from a
world that
long,
long,
long,
long ago
once looked at us like a beacon.
Free us of such responsibility, sweet land
of liberty.

Yes, freedom! From your poor and tired,
and huddled masses yearning to be…
to be…
to be…
something.

Freedom from the press.
Freedom from speech.
Freedom from religion.
Freedom from arms.
Freedom from privacy.
Freedom from
from
from
from –
Freedom, Goddamnit!
Give me bloody freedom!

Mr. Jefferson, sir, you look ill.
Have we not made you proud?
Then free us from that as well, good man,
and let the fireworks begin!

.

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LOL,
Sounds like a great weekend for two or three fifths and a case of frozen orange juice! :laughing:

“I’d like a salad please.” Do you want bleu cheese, ranch, Thousand Islands, or vinegarette? Croutons or toast? White or whole grain? “Dammit! I don’t want to make a dozen decisions! Just bring me a frigging salad!” Fuck freedom…

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I especially liked this part:

You know, it’s kinda tough to retain any naïve optimism around here. :wink: heheheh

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Dressing, JT? Dressing has cholesterol you know. Soon to be outlawed by the Diet Police and available only on the black market. I’d give it three to five more years tops

I know, Anita. But I suppose one mustn’t give up hope. Maybe there’s a way to reverse the slide that has us becoming a country that would be wholly unrecognizable to the Founding Fathers. Maybe what’s been lost hasn’t been lost forever. One can hope…

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Hi Rainey,

I doubt that the diet police will be of much use in a few years. Dressing for a salad will slowly become whatever is available instead of the litany of myriad choices. It will soon be: “I’d like a salad, please. And is any dressing available?” As I think about it, the question may soon be" “Is any salad available?”

Oddly, I find the coming years to be full of optimism. As people are forced out of their cotton candy lives, there is every good chance that we can once again look to the founding of this country for direction. So hope away. :smiley: We are living in times where hope is becoming more important with every passing day.

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Rainey and JT,
I agree with both of you, there is still plenty of cause for hope. It is more than a little disheartening to realize we have a very long road ahead of us before we can make up for all of the damage that’s been done. But there really is no other option - things have to get better, we have to make that happen. If nothing else, I think we are a country united behind that idea.

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Well of course you and I just flat disagree on the prophecies of Mother Nature’s demise. But if that’s what it takes to get people to go back to the founding ideals, then call me Chicken Little. Unfortunately, I think the exact opposite would happen. We’ve raised generations now of people who look to and depend on their government for direction in every part of their lives. Save us, they would scream and plead in such a crisis. We’ll give you anything…

Truthfully, Tent and Anita, I don’t know what will turn us around. Maybe once tent’s crisis has given the government all the power, another Jefferson rises from the ashes and we have a new revolution. My perpetual optimism is sourced in the firm belief that the worst of times often forges the best of people. When we needed a Lincoln, a Lincoln came along.

Hopefully it doesn’t come to all that. Maybe the pendulum will just start swinging back on its own.

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Rainey,

The part of this so-called “crisis” of energy costs rising so dramatically, is that the government will lose power because it won’t be able to respond. People will be forced back on themselves, not the government. That the part that makes me feel optimistic. Look at the Katrina mess. Sure, people first looked to government, but as government failed, most of the people did what they had to do to survive and make do. There are a whole bunch of folks who are more self-reliant now than before Katrina.

It isn’t going to be pretty, but people will gradually learn to depend on themselves and small groups. Washington will lose power because it will continue to lose credibility in it’s ability to come up with workable answers. Be of good cheer. “The times, they are ‘a changin’”

It would be a good time to have a nice 24 footer, stocked with provisions for a fairly long cruise… :smiley:

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:laughing: Especially after the gov’t tried to poison us victims and then deny it. Things are a hoppin down here at katrina ground Zero. Fema Trailers and formaldahyde… The lawyers are causing more floods just by their drooling alone. Oh and the most recent developmentincase it has not hit national news yet. they want to boot folks out of their katrina cottages and the safe trailers… cuz its been 3 years… the kicker, the insurance companies are not coughing up settlements, Zoning laws have changed so building costs have gone through the roof, what ever Fema gave people is not enough to cover the costs of rebuilding , all the time limits have been used up and now insurance companies are backing out because of the flood vicitms up north. They have been hit hard so they will go to where the news media directs them. How do you spell Katrina victims_-- S-- c --r–e–w–e–d :laughing: But, Like Tent says we are rebuilding with the help of volunteers and charities from around the country and the world and our own good old fashioned elbow grease. Screw the Gov’t we got our neighbors, a bunch of us just sent a huge truck load of supplies up north to help out. So it all works. Keep up the cheer rainey, we are only down when we quit.

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Well I hope you guys are right. It would be nice to think that something has put at least a small dent in our entitlement mentality. Imagine. Having to depend upon oneself. What’s next? Taking responsibility for one’s own actions? The possibilities are staggering…

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Rainey!!!

Oh my, what are you thinking? :astonished: :astonished: Surely you haven’t forgotten… We crucified the last guy who asked us to do that. :wink: There’s a poem in this somewhere. I’m sure of it. :laughing:

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Maybe even a whole book!?
[size=85]Sorry, that was pretty feeble.[/size]

Rainey, I think we’ll just stick with the poem you have already so graciously provided. Very meaningful and thought-provoking.

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Yes I vote for that, it carries a sentiment I have long felt.

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Or we could simply make it what we want. We are already doing that. Making it what we want. We’re just doing it unconsciously.

A