As you can see this post has nothing to do with football. My new found interest in caring about the country that I live in has become more important at the time being, then any football news.
And I figured I might as well blog about anything.. I was not getting a good response from my football commentary so its time to try something new.
So here is the question I have been struggling with lately.. What is America, and more importantly what will it be in the future? But before I ask that question, let me ask this question, why should we, both you and me, care? After all this is probably one of the last things people want to talk about. For me it started months before the election of
President Obama. I was sitting around the house one day bored to my mind waiting to go to work. There was only so much sports,,ie. football web surfing one can do! and trust me I was reaching my limit. So I turned on the radio, but instead of music this time, I turned on 97.1 fm talk radio out of St. Louis. The show that was on was Bill O'Reilly. Now before this time I really did not follow politics, for whatever reason, I like many others found it boring. (I remember growing up my parents would always have Rush Limbaugh on, but I was never actively interested in what he was saying.) But then I listened to his show, Mr. O'Reilly radio show was very engaging and interesting and the next thing you know I was listening to it every morning. At that time he was building up to an interview with
thee Obama. I, day after day, became more interested.. realizing even though I did not know that much, I could be actually be interested in something other then football and my latest is baseball. Then came the interview with
Obama. I sat and listend and since then have not been able to pull my interest away from politics. How could I be so disengaged for so long? But finally I had a reason to be engaged,
Why? Why do I care? Because I became angry. Angry that in the interview and every time since then Obama would not directly answer the questions.. (nor his White House Press Sec. Robert Gibbs)..
after all he was running for the presidency and he can not give a straight answer!!
(I realize he is running for the presidency and he has to say the "right" things to get elected, but
please let your true liberal idealogy out.! Let us know that is who you are and then we can make a decision.)
Angry that this pattern is present in the mainstream media. Angry that learning more that it is not just a Democrat thing.. but also a Republican. That former president Bush did many things that I would not agree with also, things that in the name of national secruity went against our freedoms. I began to listen to more than just Bill O'Reilly, I started listening to Glenn Beck, Laura Ingraham, and Mark Levin, and yes Rush also.
I began thinking that I do not have to be a "crazy" conservative to listen to this stuff,,, and why is it that the label the media puts on people who do listen to these people? I also watch the "junk" that is on MSNBC such as Keith Olbermann and Rachael Maddow. I watch and see the pure hatered they have for the right. But I also watch to see if they say anything that is valid, anything that I could agree with.
But after feeling angry I felt impowered. I felt that I can watch all these shows from the left and the right and I can form my own opnions on who I do and do not agree with. When pushed I am a traditionalist with moral values, because of my Christian faith. I became angry when
Obama did not stand up for the life of the unborn, but does that make my view any less valid. Why does the media put down such views? The answer is simple, it is because those that are running such media organizations have liberal idealogies and agendas. Which brings me back to the question I asked at the start, What is America, and why should we care?
Because the America that is, is changing.
Obama is the symbol of yep you guessed it "hope and change" but is it what you want? There is a host of issues that I have now become interested in, like what is torture, legalization of gay marriage, our international involvement in any number of countries, North Korea, and the latest cap and trade.. just to name a few. For me it is about forming an opinion and then defending it, giving good reason for it. For that freedom is what America is. Freedom that will be lost if nobody cares. Learn that lesson now, before it is to late.
Just look at communist countries, what is going on in Iran, these are examples of what happens when we lose our freedom to voice our views, no matter how different thy might be from one another! Is
Obama what you want for America, if so then you got what you wished for, but if not then voice your opinion but defend it with good reason, which is mostly what I will do. It is not that I dislike
Obama because he is not a Republican, it is nothing like that. It is becuase I disagree with him on almost every issue he has faced and future blogs from me will explain more on this.
But let me finish writing this post with this:
"Freedom is not merely the opportunity to do as one pleases; neither is it merely the opportunity to choose between set alternatives. Freedom is, first of all, the chance to formulate the available choices, to argue over them -- and then, the opportunity to choose."
C Wright Mills
