Zombie apocalypse? It’s here.
If you’ve been watching television for about a year now, you may have noticed that there’s a lot of shows dealing with the gruesome. There’s zombies, vampires, even werewolves, now and then. What is the fascination here? You don’t need to watch television to see some of these creatures…you only have to venture out onto a street where there is a protest of some sort taking place. By and large, and this is just my opinion you understand, the protesters march along with their signs and bull-horns blaring out their slogans. When questioned about what they’re doing, a majority of them do not seem to know why they are there, which leads me to believe in zombies. We all know, or should, what a zombie is…a person that has no will of their own and is responding to some sort of stimulus…at least that’s my impression.
Between political correctness run amok, and the general apathy evidenced by young people today, we are being faced with the very real possibility that our country will be run by these zombies. In a time when you can wake up one morning and claim to “feel” like the opposite sex and therefore be allowed to use a bathroom of that sex, it doesn’t bode well for people who DON’T think that way. The PC crowd also wants to eliminate all manner of gender labels, to the point of ridiculousness. In some colleges and universities it is frowned upon to call people by ANY reference to their gender. So you have banned phrases like “you guys” and words like “Sir” or “Ma’am” and, heaven forbid that you should utter something about patriotism, you might well get drummed out of the class!
What’s wrong with being patriotic? We know, because the Supreme Court says so, that it’s alright to desecrate the American flag, even to burning it. That’s free speech and it’s covered. What isn’t covered is the possible consequence of a couple of men (Oh…can I use that word?) coming up to the flag-burner and beating the crap out of him or her. See, free speech, or any action, always has consequences and some of them might be unintended on the part of the person committing the act. Again, what’s wrong with being patriotic? During the Vietnam War, which was undeclared by the way, the saying was that if America was good enough to live in, it was good enough to fight for…which led a number of Americans to flee to Canada and stay there until it was all over.
Patriotism extends, I believe, to making this country the top dog again. Let’s suppose that you’re looking for a pair of jeans and you go to WalMart to buy them. The chances are that you’ll buy a pair that have a famous American name, but they’re not made in this country. So, my question is this…would you spend an extra dollar or two to get something made in the United States, over something made somewhere else? If you would like to purchase things made in this country, go online and just put in “Products made in America” and you’ll get a couple of pages worth of ideas. While we’re on that subject, we now have a person getting ready to be the next President and his thoughts on the subject are similar to mine, but he gets a chance to tell EVERYBODY. No product that is made overseas, and bears an American name, should be allowed back into the United States without some sort of penalty being put on it. Perhaps a tariff of 35% is a bit much, and we know that will be passed right on to the consumer so, think about this: why don’t they stay here, make their product here and avoid that 35% “entrance fee” to the United States?
Sticking to the subject of things being made…let’s face it, folks, not everyone is cut out to be a computer whiz. There will always be people needed to fix leaky plumbing, to build things like houses and cabinets, repair or replace roofing and so on. Show me those people, because there is a definite need that is not being filled. Even now there is an excess of lawyers because, for a time, every kid in college wanted to be one. Some of these college graduates are working at minimum wage jobs because the field they chose to follow is either saturated or it’s just not important to the current economy. There’s a couple of career choices that come to mind as to be completely worthless in today’s economy, in my not-so-humble opinion. English Literature is one, Sports Management is another, and Political Science is one also. You may question that last one, since we’ve just gone through a harrowing political experience, but my theory is that you learn best IN the field, DOING the job and what you learn that way sticks with you.
Parting shot: it was said over and over again during this past election cycle, that we are a democracy. That is not true. We are a democratic nation, but we are a constitutional republic, and that makes all the difference in the world.
Comments? I’m at amafrog@att.net
Larry Usoff, US Navy Retired
(aka The Old Alarmist)
Duty. Honor. Country.
photo credit: eyemage freedom? via photopin (license)
