Good morning, y’all. Well, we had a couple of thunderstorms flash through today. Just as suddenly as they came, they were gone. The sun came out shining like it was going to totally clear up, but the wind has kept blowing. I don’t know if that means there are more storms on the way, or, if we’re just waiting for the winds to shift to the Southwest and start blowing hot air back into our area. It is very pleasant outside right now, and you could not ask for more beautiful weather for late May.
I tried to keep the topics light on our trek to Walmart this week. Mulva has been under a tremendous amount of stress from her responsibilities with The Full Gospel Original Church of God. Both the Crystal Palace and the “Little Church in the Valley” are presenting challenges right now, and I wanted to give Mulva something else to talk about other than church business. It’s not often I can drag Mulva in to a political discussion, but I continue to try. I baited her with the idea of who would be the best vice-presidential running mates for Hillary and The Donald.
In a brief moment of wit and sarcasm, Mulva suggested Lucifer for The Donald, “so everybody could see where The Donald would be taking the country”. I had a good laugh, and asked, “what about for Hillary?” Mulva suggested Bill Clinton for Hillary’s running mate. Well, I nearly put us in the ditch snapping my head to see if there was a serious look on her face, or if she was just funning me. Mulva was serious. After I righted the car, I asked, “what are your reasons?” Mulva responded that he was already trained in the job, could be counted on to step in Hilary’s place at the drop of the hat, and, most importantly, Hillary would always know where her vice-president was. Well, I had a good laugh at that one, and the mood had definitely lightened by the time we pulled into the Walmart parking lot.
Mulva went off to look for bargains and I went to dumpster dive the bargain movie bins to see if I could come up with a good choice for Date night. Proving the old adage, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”, I found a copy of Michael Moore’s latest movie in the $5.99 bin. Michael Moore movies do not play at the theaters in our neck of the woods. In fact, when we saw “Capitalism: A Love Story”, we had to drive to Atlanta to see it. Folks in my area consider it to be very unpatriotic to suggest that things can be done better in America. Michael Moore is a bit of a pariah in our area since he’s constantly pointing out things that could be done way better.
It’s very odd to me that my neighbors lose sight of the fact that our country was founded by a bunch of people who were unhappy with how things were going, and decided to make a change. Unfortunately, my neighbors look to Fox News for insight into today’s pressing problems. It is my belief that Fox News’ version of what the founding fathers were thinking is shaped by how the advertisers want the founding fathers presented. The general public’s lack of knowledge of our history, and of our civics, plays directly into the hands of the false prophets like Fox News.
Ironically, education, or the lack thereof, is one of the topics brought up in Moore’s new movie, “Where To Invade Next”. Sadly, the people who need to see it the most will not see it. Fox News will tell them that they will turn to salt like Lot’s wife if they view anything from Michael Moore. The ignorant will continue to accept being mid-range of every societal measuring stick, because the manipulators of the airwaves want them to remain ignorant of better choices, better ways of doing things. Here are some interesting benchmarks for where the U.S. stands in the world:
- The U.S. ranks 14th in education
- The U.S. ranks 2nd in child poverty
- The U.S. ranks 33rd in acceptance of evolution
- The U.S. ranks 2nd in ignorance
- The U.S. ranks 50th in life expectancy
- The U.S. ranks 22nd in freedom of the press
Obviously, a low number is not good in some things, like child poverty and ignorance. Nor is a high number good in things like freedom of the press, or acceptance of scientific certainties. The point being, that for all of the huff and puff about “we’re number one”, we’re not number one in any area except military might. We don’t even break the top ten in any of the areas that make our society a better society, like health care, education, quality of life. Is that just happenstance, or are the goals just too hard to achieve?
Well, Moore’s movie points out that many countries far less blessed than the United States are finding a way to provide free college educations to their citizens. They provide cradle to the grave health care and even family leave for the birth of a child. Apparently, better societies are a result of the priorities for the society being set by the 99%, not the 1%.
The movie does not doom the U.S. to the scrap heap of history like the Roman empire. Moore offers the hope that things can change overnight, like the taking down of the Berlin wall. The people just need to demand the change. Man the ramparts.