am back now...
Hi. I am exhausted. And how are you? I am EXHAUSTED. I'm sure I'll write more about the concert later but for now just let me tell you a few things.
Yes there were politics there, and no I didn't agree with all of them, but was the concert solely about Republicans YAY! Sis Boom Bah? No. So I am no longer thinking of this as a Republican Convention type thing but more of a belated Fourth of July, Proud to be an American type thing. Which no, doesn't mean that I am happy with everything about America or that I support everything they've done or are doing, but yes, I am proud to be an American, I love America, and I love our soldiers. Because one of the things Fred Thompson said (I'll go into that later) was a play on the "the home of the free and the brave" saying, in that "We wouldn't be the land of the free if it weren't for the brave." And yeah. It's true. Freedom comes at a price, and while the news and the government, yes, is playing on our fear tactics, that doesn't make it any less true. The first Americans fought a war against Britain to be able to be free and that's how we became what we are. And I'm not talking about the "greatest superpower in the world" or "the best place ever" but I'm talking about...
I'm talking about we live in a land where if we're pissed at the President, we can say so. We can say so in public, on national and international television, in political talk shows or comedy shows or news spoof shows. We can burn our flag in protest. If our women are raped, they are not ousted by their community for having "brought shame" to them. Us women are like, ya know, allowed to keep our clitorisus (clitori? lol) intact. We have free access to the world wide web and national and international news coverage, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and our ignorance is of our own choosing, not our government's sensorship. And you know what? If someone wants to take all that away from us, damn right I want to fight back. And I'm not even saying that that's going to happen, or that that's what September 11th was about, I'm not even trying to be political here, but I'm saying.... who defends us against those who wish us harm? The military.
And I for one am sick and fucking tired of hearing people talk shit about them, and empty-mouth "I support our troops, but...", and these people that... I can't even talk about it without getting furious, but these fucking people that get out there and protest during a soldier's funeral while the family is 50 feet away saying "your son deserved to die because America is pro-gay"... No. I can't even speak, or else this'll turn into another rant in the middle of an already too long rant, and I'm gonna stop now. And while I think Iraq is bullshit, at least in the way it's been played (played, like it's a game? you know what I mean... in the way it's happened) is bullshit, and while the phrase "Operation Iraqi Freedom" makes me vomit in my mouth, I do not disrespect the soldiers, or look down on them, or think they're too stupid to know what they're doing.
And yes, when they broadcast, live, four American soldiers whose families were in the audience and we cheered for them and thanked them for what they do and one of them started to cry at the sheer deafening magnitude of the cheers? Yes. I did cry. And hell, maybe that's manipulation of our heartstrings, but I don't care. I get so sick at the thought of these men and women over there doing what they think is a good thing, a right thing, coming back here and being talked about and treated like Vietnam vets, like my Dad who was drafted in after he graduated college and was trying to hitch a ride home from New Orleans to Lafayette and got spat on and had a beer bottle thrown at his head. It makes me fucking sick.
I'm going to make another post now about the concert, cause I just meant to make a run down of the people who were there and how awesome they were and this is what came out.
Yes there were politics there, and no I didn't agree with all of them, but was the concert solely about Republicans YAY! Sis Boom Bah? No. So I am no longer thinking of this as a Republican Convention type thing but more of a belated Fourth of July, Proud to be an American type thing. Which no, doesn't mean that I am happy with everything about America or that I support everything they've done or are doing, but yes, I am proud to be an American, I love America, and I love our soldiers. Because one of the things Fred Thompson said (I'll go into that later) was a play on the "the home of the free and the brave" saying, in that "We wouldn't be the land of the free if it weren't for the brave." And yeah. It's true. Freedom comes at a price, and while the news and the government, yes, is playing on our fear tactics, that doesn't make it any less true. The first Americans fought a war against Britain to be able to be free and that's how we became what we are. And I'm not talking about the "greatest superpower in the world" or "the best place ever" but I'm talking about...
I'm talking about we live in a land where if we're pissed at the President, we can say so. We can say so in public, on national and international television, in political talk shows or comedy shows or news spoof shows. We can burn our flag in protest. If our women are raped, they are not ousted by their community for having "brought shame" to them. Us women are like, ya know, allowed to keep our clitorisus (clitori? lol) intact. We have free access to the world wide web and national and international news coverage, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and our ignorance is of our own choosing, not our government's sensorship. And you know what? If someone wants to take all that away from us, damn right I want to fight back. And I'm not even saying that that's going to happen, or that that's what September 11th was about, I'm not even trying to be political here, but I'm saying.... who defends us against those who wish us harm? The military.
And I for one am sick and fucking tired of hearing people talk shit about them, and empty-mouth "I support our troops, but...", and these people that... I can't even talk about it without getting furious, but these fucking people that get out there and protest during a soldier's funeral while the family is 50 feet away saying "your son deserved to die because America is pro-gay"... No. I can't even speak, or else this'll turn into another rant in the middle of an already too long rant, and I'm gonna stop now. And while I think Iraq is bullshit, at least in the way it's been played (played, like it's a game? you know what I mean... in the way it's happened) is bullshit, and while the phrase "Operation Iraqi Freedom" makes me vomit in my mouth, I do not disrespect the soldiers, or look down on them, or think they're too stupid to know what they're doing.
And yes, when they broadcast, live, four American soldiers whose families were in the audience and we cheered for them and thanked them for what they do and one of them started to cry at the sheer deafening magnitude of the cheers? Yes. I did cry. And hell, maybe that's manipulation of our heartstrings, but I don't care. I get so sick at the thought of these men and women over there doing what they think is a good thing, a right thing, coming back here and being talked about and treated like Vietnam vets, like my Dad who was drafted in after he graduated college and was trying to hitch a ride home from New Orleans to Lafayette and got spat on and had a beer bottle thrown at his head. It makes me fucking sick.
I'm going to make another post now about the concert, cause I just meant to make a run down of the people who were there and how awesome they were and this is what came out.