What Would John Raymor Think?
My great-great-great-great-great-grandfather (maternal) was born September 2, 1764 in Roxbury, Suffolk, Massachusetts, and died on October 25, 1822 in Ontario, Ontario, New York. In March 1780 he enlisted, at age 15, for three years of service with the Continental Army, was assigned to the Massachusetts Line, and fought at Yorktown (1781). He was honorably discharged at "Hudson's River," New York by Major General Henry Knox and his adjutant Maj. Anselm Tupper, on December 23, 1783, as a ripe old campaigner of 19.
Whatever his political philosophy, my ancestor clearly thought a free and independent United States was a good idea.
Which is why today, of all days, I am more than a little uncomfortable when I consider my "anti-Americanism," and openly wonder whether my country is still so free and whether Americans are still so independent or are more dependent, or simply lobotomized.
Most of my neighbors would think my innermost thoughts on this day were cribbed from an al Qaida recruiting manual: America is shallow, ignorant and materialistic. Americans are today distracted as never before with gadgetry, sensationalism, entertainment and a thousand other kinds of "bread and circuses." This country is in thrall to its corporate masters, bullied by its industrial conglomerates and utterly silent about the unraveling of this great land since the current administration was installed. American foreign policy focuses not on the hard work of peace and negotiation, but on a willingness to make war at will on the basis of half-baked plans cooked up by chickenhawk academics in necon think tanks. American domestic policy, except in matters of internal security, is largely absent, stagnant, and our infrastructure is continuing to decay. Through cruel indifference, many Americans are allowed to go hungry, without adequate healthcare and to founder and forage in a wilderness of ignorance as disparities of privileges become more pronounced. And Americans have remained largely silent while their government has backed away from its obligations to the United Nations, toward relieving hunger, genocide and disease around the world. We have failed to take a single step in leading a renewed effort to help find a peace between the Israeli government and Palestinians. I keep hearing Marley's ghost: "Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were all my business."
We have a government that seeks to extend the battle against unaccountable totalitarian governments by becoming an unaccountable totalitarian government itself, failing to practice what it preaches about equal rights and social justice. Like all budding dictatorships, our current government wants to redefine the language, so that "torture" is not really torture, "prisoners of war" are not really prisoners of war; suicides by human beings detained uncharged and without trial are suddenly hostile actions that are an affront to every red-blooded American, i.e. "hostile acts of asymmetric warfare waged against us"; and "The Clean Rivers Act" does not really promote clean rivers.
So saluting the red, white and blue, barbecuing some burgers and dogs and opening a beer or soda before a fireworks display becomes a bit problematic for me. And yet, and yet ... we know all these things are true because we still have a free press, albeit a skewed and timid one, and even the celebrity-saturated media has a little room for more serious data. Our waterways may not be clean, but check out the streams in China and India. Our interrogation techniques may be brutal, but check out the ones used by jihadists. It is possible to dislike both protocols, while still being able to draw a distinction between them, right? There is a difference between us and those who oppose us, isn't there? Doesn't truth still have a place in the American dialectic, even if reason and diplomacy are no longer part of our arsenal? Or am I only rationalizing?
Rationalization or not, The United States of America is not the same thing as the administration of George W. Bush, and, short of impeachment, assassination or some other mishap, George Bush has to leave in January 2009 no matter what. That's a pretty good system, even if currently unchecked and unbalanced.
I often want to give up on the system. Jingoism has hijacked patriotism, and the younger generations seem like they'll never unplug from their iPods, iPhones and other isolating, self-absorbed pastimes. The plugged-in, tech-savvy and virtual reality-proficient throngs make me wonder how many people ever take July Fourth –or any other day—to reflect on things like Lincoln's Gettysburg Address (which every kid knew by heart when I was in school), and lines like "It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
How many people think on that on the Fourth of July? How many stop a moment to think what is meant by dedicating oneself to the unfinished work [not only of those dead at Gettysburg, but of the Founders] and what that requires? Do we have the will and fortitude of those "honored dead" to do what we need to do today, in 2007, to stand up and make sure that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth? Or have we already let things go too far and lost it, losing what Benjamin Franklin predicted we might lose if we were careless, i.e. "a Republic...if you can keep it"? Have we let it become so rotten even the Founders would chuck it and start over, or can we tear ourselves away long enough from our handheld devices and televisions and myriad other instant, self-gratifying minutiae to look around at this nation conceived in liberty, to dedicate ourselves to taking back, reclaiming our birthright that Lincoln so revered?
I don't know; I'm not especially hopeful about it as I write this and recall Goethe: "We are shaped and fashioned by what we love."
America's got a lot to love, and freedom beats slavery any day, but are we paying attention and acting on our observations, or just watching gardens of fireworks flower in our skies, another year gone by?
I'll have to decide to keep moving forward regardless of what I suspect or fear. John Raymor did and, in some small way, helped make a huge difference. He thought he could help change the world, or affect a change in it. I can do no less.
Whatever his political philosophy, my ancestor clearly thought a free and independent United States was a good idea.
Which is why today, of all days, I am more than a little uncomfortable when I consider my "anti-Americanism," and openly wonder whether my country is still so free and whether Americans are still so independent or are more dependent, or simply lobotomized.
Most of my neighbors would think my innermost thoughts on this day were cribbed from an al Qaida recruiting manual: America is shallow, ignorant and materialistic. Americans are today distracted as never before with gadgetry, sensationalism, entertainment and a thousand other kinds of "bread and circuses." This country is in thrall to its corporate masters, bullied by its industrial conglomerates and utterly silent about the unraveling of this great land since the current administration was installed. American foreign policy focuses not on the hard work of peace and negotiation, but on a willingness to make war at will on the basis of half-baked plans cooked up by chickenhawk academics in necon think tanks. American domestic policy, except in matters of internal security, is largely absent, stagnant, and our infrastructure is continuing to decay. Through cruel indifference, many Americans are allowed to go hungry, without adequate healthcare and to founder and forage in a wilderness of ignorance as disparities of privileges become more pronounced. And Americans have remained largely silent while their government has backed away from its obligations to the United Nations, toward relieving hunger, genocide and disease around the world. We have failed to take a single step in leading a renewed effort to help find a peace between the Israeli government and Palestinians. I keep hearing Marley's ghost: "Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were all my business."
We have a government that seeks to extend the battle against unaccountable totalitarian governments by becoming an unaccountable totalitarian government itself, failing to practice what it preaches about equal rights and social justice. Like all budding dictatorships, our current government wants to redefine the language, so that "torture" is not really torture, "prisoners of war" are not really prisoners of war; suicides by human beings detained uncharged and without trial are suddenly hostile actions that are an affront to every red-blooded American, i.e. "hostile acts of asymmetric warfare waged against us"; and "The Clean Rivers Act" does not really promote clean rivers.
So saluting the red, white and blue, barbecuing some burgers and dogs and opening a beer or soda before a fireworks display becomes a bit problematic for me. And yet, and yet ... we know all these things are true because we still have a free press, albeit a skewed and timid one, and even the celebrity-saturated media has a little room for more serious data. Our waterways may not be clean, but check out the streams in China and India. Our interrogation techniques may be brutal, but check out the ones used by jihadists. It is possible to dislike both protocols, while still being able to draw a distinction between them, right? There is a difference between us and those who oppose us, isn't there? Doesn't truth still have a place in the American dialectic, even if reason and diplomacy are no longer part of our arsenal? Or am I only rationalizing?
Rationalization or not, The United States of America is not the same thing as the administration of George W. Bush, and, short of impeachment, assassination or some other mishap, George Bush has to leave in January 2009 no matter what. That's a pretty good system, even if currently unchecked and unbalanced.
I often want to give up on the system. Jingoism has hijacked patriotism, and the younger generations seem like they'll never unplug from their iPods, iPhones and other isolating, self-absorbed pastimes. The plugged-in, tech-savvy and virtual reality-proficient throngs make me wonder how many people ever take July Fourth –or any other day—to reflect on things like Lincoln's Gettysburg Address (which every kid knew by heart when I was in school), and lines like "It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
How many people think on that on the Fourth of July? How many stop a moment to think what is meant by dedicating oneself to the unfinished work [not only of those dead at Gettysburg, but of the Founders] and what that requires? Do we have the will and fortitude of those "honored dead" to do what we need to do today, in 2007, to stand up and make sure that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth? Or have we already let things go too far and lost it, losing what Benjamin Franklin predicted we might lose if we were careless, i.e. "a Republic...if you can keep it"? Have we let it become so rotten even the Founders would chuck it and start over, or can we tear ourselves away long enough from our handheld devices and televisions and myriad other instant, self-gratifying minutiae to look around at this nation conceived in liberty, to dedicate ourselves to taking back, reclaiming our birthright that Lincoln so revered?
I don't know; I'm not especially hopeful about it as I write this and recall Goethe: "We are shaped and fashioned by what we love."
America's got a lot to love, and freedom beats slavery any day, but are we paying attention and acting on our observations, or just watching gardens of fireworks flower in our skies, another year gone by?
I'll have to decide to keep moving forward regardless of what I suspect or fear. John Raymor did and, in some small way, helped make a huge difference. He thought he could help change the world, or affect a change in it. I can do no less.
posted by concordland at 12:25 AM
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