Old School

So, I was out and about, protesting the BEARCAT at the press conference a few days ago, not that many people saw it, when one man, in the company of his teenage children, was asked by a protester to sign the petition. He walked away essentially saying “the more the better” with the attitude that if you are a law abiding citizen, you have nothing to worry about and that it’s the job of the police to keep people in line. I can’t say I was surprised by the response, but I still shook my head. I was born in this town. I played kick the can when I was 8 years old until midnight with my older brothers, only to answer to my mother’s technology free neighborhood child call when it was time to go inside. You know, the humiliating “WOOOOHHHOOOO” that sent embarrassing shivers down your spine, despite the fact that everyone else’s mother did the same thing. That was 1981, and the world was not without its whack jobs. We are not talking the 1950’s here in the land of Hunkydoriville. 1981 was the year six year old Adam Walsh was abducted and killed. 1981 was also the year Wayne Williams was arrested for the Atlanta child murders. Heck, Elvis had only died a few years earlier, setting the standard for the uber elitist and ever so genius business move to appreciate the value of one’s estate by dying from a drug overdose. The world was a mess, and still we played kick the can.

I think this town has lost something. Or at least we are losing it, and we had better find it quick, or it will be lost forever. I don’t know why, when, or how it happened, but our sense of old school self preservation is a dying art. Not because we are no longer resourceful people, but because fear based solicitation has put us in a box. Fear is everywhere. It’s in a can of energy drink that tells you your work performance is diminished without it. It’s in the words we choose carefully for fear of being politically incorrect. It is in sensational news headlines and tabloids. It’s in the back to school ads, insomuch as your kids will not be liked if they don’t have the right sneakers. I mean, it’s bull crap and we are buying into it! What more can I say? Can someone please bring back the neighborhood fat guy who taught all the kids how to fight? Because honestly, we are raising a bunch of wimps who don’t know how to protect themselves, and expect the government to do it for them. News flash people. The Supreme Court has already defined law enforcement as such that they are not obligated to put their own lives on the line to save ours. They are law “enforcement”. You know, arrest someone *AFTER* they have committed a crime. By definition, they are the clean-up crew. I am not degrading their job. I am just keeping it real here.

It does not surprise me one bit that we are so divided on this issue of outfitting our local police with military grade equipment. The way I see it, this is not necessarily a party line mentality division, rather a division of which indoctrination navigates your core. The indoctrination of submission to authority which starts in our public schools, or the indoctrination of old school consequence be damned philosophy that implores you listen to your own conscience when it whispers in your ear “something aint right”.

Stop settling for what you are told is good for you because “they” know better. Stop submitting to the notion that just because someone is elected, your input is no longer important. Stop choosing an obvious winner and start routing for the underdog, even if his teeth are crooked. And stop selling your soul to the lie that it’s the governments job to baby sit us and turn this country around. Corporate government is a rabid dog. Stop feeding it.