Soapbox

I recently received an e-mail forward of an unattributed essay that chastised the citizens of America for not being grateful for what they have and, instead, complaining all the time. Proof of our ingratitude was offered by the recent polls that show that over 2/3rds of the population do not approve of the direction the country is taking, the war in Iraq and the performance of the President.

How dare we?

“What a bunch of spoiled brats!” the writer lamented. He pointed out the amazing highway system, the police and fire departments that we can call on, the abundance of televisions, cellphones, etc that our citizens possess and asked how we dare criticize a president who is defending our nation. The writer also pointed out that we shouldn’t feel sorry for the soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan because after all, they volunteered to go. We have a lot to be thankful for, he concluded, so we should stop reading negative stories in the New York Times and shut up and be grateful.

Oh really?

Some things are just so stupid, inane or such logical fallacies that, though I know it to be pointless, I respond to the person who actually thought these ideas were worth passing on.

My reply:

I expect my children to be grateful that they have a decent home to live in.
That does NOT mean that, should the roof over their bedroom spring a leak, I expect them to just shut up and be grateful that they’re not living in a cardboard box!

Yet this is essentially what this screed you sent me suggests we should all do.

It’s one thing to remind us that we should be grateful for all we have; it’s another thing to imply that gratitude should mean never striving to be better, or that it requires inaction in the face of what we believe to be wrong.

Maybe those of us who complain so much would simply like some of the billions given in tax breaks to oil companies (who already had record profits) to be used instead to feed the hungry and heal the sick: you know, like the Bible says to do.

Maybe we think that all the money we spend on wars against imaginary threats could be better spent protecting our nation from real threats.

Maybe the fact that our troops volunteered to serve this country doesn’t make us feel any better when a 19 year old neighbor dies in a foreign land fighting a war that does not serve this country in any way.

Perhaps those of us who have electricity and heat and cell phones and TV’s are angry that the government spends billions on a bridge to nowhere when there are people in New Orleans living in neighborhoods that are slowly rotting away around them, and nothing is being done.

Perhaps some of the “spoiled brats” (thanks for calling me that, by the way) are among the millions who did NOT benefit from the Bush tax cut for the wealthiest 10%. Maybe some of those ingrates have had their jobs outsourced, found their health care non-existent, college for their kids out of reach (unless the kids “volunteer” to do double and triple duty in Iraq!) or their pension fund bankrupt while their company gives a failed executive a 20 million dollar bonus for driving that company into the ground.

Perhaps we’re unhappy because the dark days after 9/11 don’t seem much darker than the days ahead under this president. We have one war that appears to be never-ending and another, much bigger, much nastier war looming, simply because the President doesn’t talk with people he disagrees with.

Perhaps we’re unhappy because we have the greatest governmental system in the world, and our president has been taking it apart like it was a set of Tinkertoys and trying to build a monarchy with it.

And maybe, while listening less to the “talking heads” is certainly a good idea, the media you’re telling us to line our birdcage with is not the same media that asked an elected U.S. senator if he is a terrorist just because he’s of a different faith, that suggests another senator is under suspicion because his last name rhymes with the first name of a bad man, or that says al Qaida should go ahead and bomb San Francisco because too many of them have a different ideas.

Do we have the greatest country in the world? I think so. Does that mean that in order to be a good citizen we need to shut up and let this great nation be damaged, its reputation tarnished and it’s citizens be subjected, in the name of the constitution, to things forbidden by the constitution?

In the 1950’s and 60’s, were the citizens who braved the police dogs and fire hoses and beatings at the hand of government officials to end segregation- were they “spoiled brats” who should have just shut up and enjoy what they had and stop complaining about what they don’t have?

I don’t think so. I think the reason we’ve gotten this far is because when ever the country started to make misguided, tragic or even evil moves in the wrong direction, the people stood up to be counted and said ” We want our nation back!”

And I do.

I leave with the words of a wise man who knew a little something about this country:

“That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.”
~Thomas Jefferson