The Emerald Rose

      Even as dense as I am sometimes I will be the  first to admit there has been a decidedly different tone and direction in my blogs over the past fifteen months. In fact, and I’m being brutally honest here, maybe I’m out of “fluff” to write about, maybe I’m really taking the Bill of Rights seriously and believing deeply we are fast selling out our children and their futures, and in the process our entire foundation as a country.

       SOooooo, I guess from here down the road this will be a considerably more “politically focused” blog, and if you don’t enjoy it please let me know, but the one thing I’ve always done is shoot from the hip, and be right up front on my feelings. I think now more than ever we are faced with the same situation that occurred in Pre-WWII Germany, where little insignificant “allowances” to our government will sooner or later bring us to the point of no allowances any more, just edicts, and God forbid, a “selection process” based on the framework of our need to “take care of everyone” starting with health care.

       This morning I stumbled across a very interesting quote from a scorned democrat who until now was “on board” the party platform,but is now having doubts. Here is what I discovered in an interview with this lady.

       “I think we’ve gone too far on the side of government doing too much,” Ducket said. “The Democratic Party is wanting to take care of everyone, instead of helping everybody stand on their own two feet.”

       Standing on one’s own two feet,….or as the TV ad with Kristie Alley touting commercial for a diet plan says, “That’s a unique concept!” Standing on their own two feet.

       I’ve been doing that since I was a kid, and despite hardships, disappointments, trials and tribulations, I would not have it any other way. Sure it sucks when you look in your pocket and know you have about enough money left for a small meal for your family and not an openended trip to the supermarket to stock up on food, but when you work, sweat and doggedly follow a dream and make it a reality,…that couple of bottles of Dom Perignon tastes that much sweeter, as does all the things you can now do for your family and others. Particularly the “others” who helped you gain that success.

        A year ago next week I had a triple bypass done on my heart. I won;t bore you with the details as that and the past year will be chronicled in a book I’m writing and will be seeking a publisher this summer called “OK,…I’m still here! Now what?” Suffice it to say afterwards I was determined to eat better, lose weight, exercise, and recover my whole life. But a funny thing happened along the way,….I decided there were parts of my life I really did not want back, and others which had moved to the back of the bus in terms of relevance and importance.

        It sort of took me by surprise. It was not an epiphany kind of instant change and recognition, but a much more gradual and easy change to make. Some of my tastes changed, (not just a love of salad and turkey meatballs!) but since I was on  the proverbial “borrowed time”, which twenty years ago would have not been there to “borrow from” (statistically the deaths from heart attacks in this country have declined from a norm of 25% per year in the 50’s to less than 7% today, thanks to medical developments and technology). I’m sure the same type of decreases have occurred in other areas as well, but with the “good news” there is always a “bad news” component there.

       It would seem that we have, despite the increasing smallness of the world with modern technology and communication, been becoming more and more introverted and selfish as people. Charitable contributions are now “tax write-offs” and “good brand identification factors”, and “the grease that makes the good old boy network” become the epitome of what we think we really want.

        Case in point a local magazine which is the “glossy” version of the society column. You know colored picture of two men and two overly made up and ” surgically redesigned” women in tuxedo’s and dresses and glaring of jewels and adornment, all smiling for the camera with a caption to the effect of “John and Mary Anchorage, and Grahame and Molly Essex at the recent “Books for the poor” fund raising ball. PLUEEEZE! My stomach is churning. If you really believe their motivation was to provide books for the poor or raise money to accomplish that objective,…well get over it. the objective was to see and be seen wearing the ribbons and medals of a prize brigade of apparently better “heeled” and more righteous herd.

         Ever price a tuxedo lately? Or the “bling” of adornments on the designer dress and Jimmy Chou shoes. Ever wonder how many books the “po’ folk” could have for the Bo-tox treatment in just three sets of lips, or one “facial pullback”?

        Now this is not a new thing, but in the past forty years or so it has become a real “class war “differentiation game”.

         In fact it cracks me up a bit in that if you go to most churches you find the “ageing” population inside. The Church parking lot full with  it’s more than fair share of Cadillacs, Jaguars, BMW’s and Mercedes,…oh yeah plus the funky new “see I’m an environmentalist” high cost  hybrids. I always was struck by the demographics of “Church folk”. The little kids, always (because they got dragged there like it or not), the early teens (not yet independent enough to nail their 95 thesis to the Cathedral door), and then you jump up to the 30 somethings with the little kids. From there you go to the 50+ crew, who are just “coming back” to regular church services and involvement, and then the 60+ bunch trying to “suck up” to be sure that if they were wrong a bout the heaven and hell thing that they could do the same thing they had been doing in the Charity and business circuits, “buy their way in”,….but just in case,…you know.

       Well I’m deviating a tad here. The upshod of this blog is to just let you know I am going back to writing about things that I can find a “passionate” connection to writing about, and not the “Charity Ball/Fundraiser” functions of life.

        I am going to move some of my blog entries from two older blogs I’ve written (commonsensegonzo.wordpress.com AND 342chests.wordpress.com)to a new blog so I can “concentrate the message” and provide what I hope will be a meaningful commentary on Freedom, Rights, Liberty, and YOU.

        I will keep you posted.

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