A friend of mine commented that my July 4th stuff should also include the idealists and philosophers that give cause to the reasons we fight. Which, is true…back in the 1700’s. The people who gave the ideals that framed the foundation of this country had a great deal to say, and an understanding that many of the “idealists” today, lack. Of course, being a lover of Locke, Franklin, Madison, and various others, got me labeled naive by my father, as my ideals weren’t based in the reality of the present. However, I do think we’ve lost a great deal in taking advantage with what we’ve grown accustomed to, in regards to freedoms that we take for granted. My paternal gram always used to bitch about the Suffragists and how there were better things to worry about, than politics. I consider her the ultimate Feminist (and if she were alive today she’d knock me upside the head for calling her that – she never understood the 70s either). This is a woman that did what she wanted, regardless her gender, and regardless what society told her she could do. She grew up when a good bit of American history was happening. She saw the end of Reconstruction after the Civil war, she lived through the Great Crash, the Dust Bowl, Black and Women’s Suffrage, Prohibition and the Repeal, both World Wars, etc up till 2000. Now that woman had ideals, and unfortunate to my family, I took after her. The stories she told were amazing and I regret not recording any of them. I still hold out hope for the sudden finding of a journal she wrote.

Anyway…the reason I say I don’t give much credence to the idealists of today, is the fact that they’re almost in exact opposite of what we had at the start. Honestly, I’ll say the last great idealist died when Paul Wellstone passed through the veil, and no one has stepped up to replace him. I get called a Liberal, because those on the political spectrum forget what liberal means, not to mention that being a conservative has little to nothing to do with preserving the Constitution anymore (which is what I really am – in the preserving sense). It saddens me that we’ve lost all respect for protecting the minority, in the manner we were set up to do, and we’ve become more concerned with protecting the rights of they who can yell loudest.

If I manage to group my thoughts anymore, I’ll write them down. Till then, I’ll step off my soap box.

(x-posted)