AMERICAN JOURNEY: ASK FOR DIRECTIONS NOW AND THEN

The American journey was once a clear path: Behave yourself, finish school, get a job.

Followed by: meet someone special and start a family. Then teach kids to behave themselves, finish school, and get a job.

With all the work done, find a good rocking chair for the porch and relax.

It’s been on repeat for generations.

What happened?

One grandpa said the only people who go to college are those afraid to work. His education stopped in the eighth grade. His opinion probably made sense to him. He lived to the ripe old age of sixty-one.

One of his kids saw the example set and became the first ever college graduate in the family. He broke the mold and set the bar high.

This was a man who had planned on a Marine Corps career. But he got married and his wife had other plans. Her man was going to be somebody.

He was somebody as a Marine Corps sergeant, but that wasn’t good enough for her. She wanted a family man with a professional job. That her husband took her up on it showed the power difference between the Marine Corps and a Marine’s wife.

Score one for the family who didn’t grow up on military bases. That was my mom and dad on their American journey.

Who Better To Ask For Advice

One of their kids decided college wasn’t the right place for them after freshman year. It was the same college the dad went to, the same college other kids in the family went to.

“I’m joining the service.”

“Why? You’ve worked all summer in the mill and have money for school. Why not finish. It doesn’t get any easier.”

“It’s too easy.”

“That’s not what your grades say.”

“Too easy to slide by, skip class, and still pass. I want more challenge.”

“Then join the Marine Corps. They’ll challenge you for four years.”

“The Navy and Army have two year enlistments. I’ll go in for two and stay if I like it. If not, I’ll get out and go back to college.”

“Four years isn’t that long.”

“Twice as long as two.”

“I see that higher eduction at work.”

“Before I sign up and go I’m taking a trip and blowing all of my college money on a girl.”

“Then I take back what I just said. If you’re not going back to school, then you need to pay rent.”

“Sure. What’s the rent going to be?”

“How much money have you saved?”

“I’ll check.”

“You don’t need to. Rent is retroactive to when you first started working. By my calculations it’s everything in your savings account. Write a check.”

Two years later the kid got his money back along with a car to drive to college.

An American Journey Of Hope

For every twist and turn on the road to the future we can look back and see it made sense.

But it doesn’t make the same sense to everyone. The privileged don’t always see privilege. When they see protests and demonstrations from the couch in their air conditioned home, America looks like a foreign country.

“Why don’t they stay home?” they ask.

Because facing power and getting kicked, stomped, clubbed, and killed is their American journey. If they had AC and a couch, they might be on it, but until then the street is more of a home.

One American journey is rife with racism, injustice, and inequality. Fox News from the couch explains the solution: buy more guns.

Another journey of discovery pits men and women who insist on the rule of law regarding reproductive rights against a rag tag bunch of zealots more comfortable burning abortion clinics than court rulings.

They act as if they’re getting their face peeled off and glued to their worst enemy. It’s a law and order group until they disagree, then it’s a gas can group.

We Are All Alone On An American Journey

All alone, that is, until we find the right groups, the right causes, the right people. Then we’re not all alone.

That’s what happened at the Capitol on Jan.6, just a friendly gathering of people interested in how government works?

They showed all of the American virtues: determination, desire, devotion. All of them were willing to charge the beach, take the hill, and route their enemies.

The big problem was leadership. They listened to a man more interested in looking in a mirror and getting his hair and make-up on than doing the work of leading.

A man who professes love for the under-educated, a man so bold as to call them out as under-educated while sporting an Ivy League college degree from Penn, found the sweet spot.

Now, it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy. And after this, we’re going to walk down, and I’ll be there with you, we’re going to walk down, we’re going to walk down.

Anyone you want, but I think right here, we’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them.

Because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated, lawfully slated.

I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.

When Breaking The Law Is Part Of The Journey

And we fight. We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.

Our exciting adventures and boldest endeavors have not yet begun. My fellow Americans, for our movement, for our children, and for our beloved country.

And I say this despite all that’s happened. The best is yet to come.

So we’re going to, we’re going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. I love Pennsylvania Avenue. And we’re going to the Capitol, and we’re going to try and give.

The Democrats are hopeless — they never vote for anything. Not even one vote. But we’re going to try and give our Republicans, the weak ones because the strong ones don’t need any of our help. We’re going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.

So let’s walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.

I want to thank you all. God bless you and God Bless America.

Thank you all for being here. This is incredible. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thanks For The Pep Talk To Insurrection People

“People, people who need people, are the luckiest people in the world.”

From usatoday.com:

Federal prosecutors have charged more than 400 people in more than 40 states with participating in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, and arrests continue almost daily. 

USA TODAY gathers details of those cases as the FBI continues to find and charge those responsible for the attack that left five people dead and sent lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence fleeing to shelter.

People from the pep talk went to the Capitol. Lots of smiling faces, angry faces, American faces.

These is no cause for celebration when misguided people misunderstand a murky message and act out on the “Orders” they think they heard. Their chain of command is different than the usual. From the President of the United States they heard what they came to hear and did what they came to do.

The results are arrest, jail, years of probation, and despair. But they were just ‘Following orders.’

Pro Tip:

Unless it’s your dad, the President doesn’t issue direct orders for angry mobs to act on.

A last word from Top Cop former Attorney General Bill Barr:

“If there was evidence of fraud, I had no motive to suppress it. But my suspicion all the way along was that there was nothing there. It was all bullshit.”

Bullshit?

On the oft-repeated allegations of rigged voting machines, for example, Barr said that “we realized from the beginning it was just bullshit.”

Okay, bullshit.

Barr decided to tell an Associated Press reporter in early December that “to date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.” Trump was livid. “How the fuck could you do this to me? Why did you say it?” Trump asked. Barr said he was only telling the truth. “You must hate Trump. You must hate Trump,” the then-president said. Barr allegedly pushed back, accusing the president of putting together a “clown show” rather than an organized challenge to the election. “That’s why you are where you are,” Barr claims he said. 

What about the four hundred and counting regular people who took the bullshit bait to the Capitol? Just a part of their American Journey?

If so, who else will be joining them?