Chew on this instead of eating your hearts out (longish rant)

A pal mentioned that she was glad her grandfather was not alive to see this day. She has pictures of him with Truman, JFK, and Johnson. She feels failure on her shoulders. I don’t know how to make her load lighter, but know I must try because I care about her. Sent her this. She asked me it with the rest of you.

Your grandfather would not think you have failed in any way. He would be justified in being plenty pissed at Americans who are so lazy as to be easily tricked into bartering away liberty and justice for the illusion of safety and progress. Feel his blood in yours and let that strength be part of you. It is your birthright!

My great-granddad, son of a NY newspaper publisher, probably sat in on a supper or two in the company of a Mr. H. Greeley and an Irish rebel, fairly new to America, by the name of Meagher. He followed Mr. Greeley's advice and went west. He knew the expanding frontier needed newspapers. He believed so strongly that a vigorous press was essential to democracy that he left a cushy life for newly opened homestead areas.

He dragged his Irish wife and growing family from one remote, newly sprouting township to the next, starting up little newspapers along the way. His sons learned their letters sitting in a home made wooden high chair playing with type. They could all read upside down & backwards as well as forwards. I think that gave them the benefit of looking at things a bit deeper than just surface level and from different perspectives.

My granddad was a printer of newspapers and insisted folks bring him back a newspaper from where ever their travels took them. Back before the locals were all swallowed up by huge corporations, he taught us how you could learn almost as much about a place by carefully reading the paper as you could by going there.

Grandpa and I disagreed on much but we agreed that Ben Franklin was right to be proudest that he had been a printer. Grandpa wanted his own grave marker to be as concise and proud as Franklin's. Mom couldn't plagiarize the simple and eloquent "Printer" on Dr. Franklin’s headstone, so when the time came to mark her father's grave, she put on it just his name, year of birth, year of death and a simple "-30-" Must confuse just about anyone who sees it. But it would speak volumes to those who knew the lingo, my grandfather’s lingo, the language of the newspaperman.

I hear the sobs for our nation from the ghosts of people like our grandfathers. I hear the curses that we have let it come to this from the shades of so many that gave so much. But I also hear the soft voices of other shades that remind me of how far we have moved. They remind me that life is always a struggle. Sometimes we gain ground. Sometimes we lose it. None of us get out alive. The fight still goes on.

The fight still goes on. That is the fact so many in America miss. Too many think the battle for liberty & justice was won long ago and they can just coast along in the wake. We know better. Our kind has ALWAYS known better. That is why we keep fighting.

Each according to our gifts and resources, we keep fighting. No obstacle is so large we cannot envision breaching it. No tasks so menial that we are above getting it done. The Mahatma taught us that no matter how insignificant our work might seem it is very important that we do it.

Rest and cry. We all have to do that. But we do not EVER surrender. This fight has been going on so much longer than just a couple hundred years. It will not be finished in the life of man, but it is the good fight.

Your granddad did not live to see this day. Mine didn’t either. But I feel their eyes on us. I feel Khephra’s eye. I feel the eyes of a thousand patriots, just average people who knew what was right and what was worth a fight. I am so tired sometimes too. My heart is not strong, not as strong as my will, anyway. My will shall outlast that which keeps life in me. So it is with those who love this nation.

PS to Steph: Mulling over the concept of power derived by the consent of the governed. Musing about that obscenely grandiose clambake going on in D.C. Maybe they are just trying to convince us they won? Maybe they know they really haven’t got our consent but think we might buy the ruse if they play it to the hilt? Maybe they are afraid if they don’t act like they own our asses we might figure out that they don’t own our asses. Just sorta kicking it around, as us stubborn asses are wont to do.

grandparents, fighters all.

To all the brave. To us. To America
:toast:

We are tougher than they can ever know.

To all that have come before us!
Our generation is only just beginning to fight.
I do not think our opponents will like the results of the fight they've started.

"Maybe they are just trying to convince us they won." Indeed.

because they have no other defense - just puff themselves up to look bigger and hope to intimidate their enemies by appearance alone because they have nothing to back it up.

The bigger the crimes this crew pulls off, the bigger the spectacle they put on to distract us. Stole election number two? Have the BIGGEST inauguration EVER. And screw the troops. Why are they whining about armor for their Humvees all the time? BushCO wants to PAR-TAY!