If at first you don’t secede…..
Apparently, according to a report from CBS, folks in Northern Colorado are so unhappy with the elitist pinko liberals in Denver, that they are seriously .talking about seceding. They propose to create a 51st state, and are inviting like-minded folk in Nebraska and maybe Kansas to join them.
Readers of this blog know that I frequently pontificate about the dangers of an “us-versus-them” worldview, but it’s increasingly obvious that Americans come in (at least) two very different flavors: oh-my-god terrified and reality-based. The OMG terrified folks wake up each morning to a world that is increasingly multicultural, increasingly technological, increasingly complex, and they want off. This wasn’t what they bargained for, they don’t want to understand it, they don’t like it, and they definitely don’t like the people who seem to accept, deal with and even welcome the scary changes.
They want out.
These are the people most disoriented by the presence of a black guy in the White House….not necessarily because they’re racists (although many are), but because Obama is a symbol of a “new world order,” a symbol of the immensity and rapidity of the hated change. These are the people who were most vicious about Nancy Pelosi when she was Speaker–a woman running the House? Unnatural! These are the people who find “illegals” from south of the border immensely more threatening than those from Canada because they’re brown and speak a different language.
While the rest of us are just trying to cope with a changing world–trying to figure out how to live together on a planet getting smaller every day (and not incidentally, trying to figure out how to save that planet for our children and grandchildren), they are frantically looking for a way back to a simpler past and a world they can understand.
It’s not going to happen. And that makes them crazy.
Don’t know what they want to name their new 51st state, but betcha the state flower will be Kudzu.
These people need to leave the country and get out and see this beautiful wonderful world. I would bet that most of those people don’t have passports either. If there is anything I learned living abroad, it’s that people of all stripes and cultures, just want to live their lives free from crime, raise their family and have a job that provides the roof over their heads, the food on their table and the bed to sleep in between shifts.
Those who are looking for a way back to a simpler past have forgotten the multitude of problems that past carries with it; many of which we are saddled with today. Much of the south is still fighting the War of Northern Agression and have talked secession, now part of the north wants to secede and is seeking others of like mind to join them.
I agree with Sheila that President Obama’s race is at the bottom of too many of these views. I’m sorry but, President Obama is not black, he is biracial; to deny that is to deny his entire white heritage – the family who loved and raised him to become the man who leads us today, the most powerful man in the world. I have three biracial great-grandchildren; were I to consider them only black, I would be denying my blood flows through their veins and my genes are part of them. It has been a long-standing rule in this country, and others, that one drop of black blood makes a person a member of the black race.
But back to the issue at hand; ALG, not everyone can afford to travel other parts of the world, not everyone wants to travel to other countries. I have been to Nogales, Mexico, a terrible poverty ridden place. I have been to Tornonto, Canada, three times and found it a beautiful, cosmopolitan city and surprising clean. I have been to Montreal only once and found the two languages in that city to be confusing; the natives know who speaks what and where to shop but tourists do not. My husband and I camped across country three times in our van; we saw some of the most spectacularly beautiful country in the world. We also saw some of the most poverty ridden areas in Appalacia and in areas of many big cities. We also saw, from outside walled complexes, the rooftops of homes of the wealthy. We happened to stop just across the state line in Wyoming shortly after an oil strike that had brought hoards of oilmen and manual laborers, all looking to strike it big. The small town was getting lost in the confusion and greed. This is a country of extremes but most of us are in the middle, trying to make our way as best we can.
I would not want to live under the rule of any Royalty and they are not without their own problems. Just where do these seekers-of-the-past believe they will find a world suited to each and every one of their needs and – most important to them – their wants. I am not happy with many situations in this city, this state or this country at present. I know in my heart it is best to “grow where you are planted” and do what you can to better existing problems. It is the work it would take to make this the world they seek that those seekers-of-the-past shy away from; much easier to sit at home and bitch, blaming others. No action is action, no decision is a decision; being unwilling to do something to change the status quo they are dissatisfied with is allowing it to continue. And they continue to whine, cry, piss and moan; stuck in a place they don’t want to be.
In no time flat, the secessionists/isolationists in their “utopia” would separate out and begin to bitch and moan all over again, because after all, nothing and no place is perfect. It’s a story old as time.
Life is so much better when people don’t bother to actually read the Constitution, and just assume that there is only one sentence after the flowery beginning: “And the purpose of this country is to make you happy on your own terms. No obligations, and it’s a money-back guarantee if you decide to pay anything, but that’s optional. Just wave the flag and drive that 4-wheel pick up!”
I love the kudzu state flower idea.
JoAnn, you sound like a worldly person who is curious about other people of the world. What I learned is that narrow minded people have no curiosity of other parts of the world. Therefore, we have battles about the ‘others’ and not one of ‘us’ which is what I meant. I traveled out of the country when I was 17 yrs old with my spanish class and paid 600 dollars for a two week trip to Spain. It doesn’t take a lot of money to travel but the lack of curiosity about other cultures is where this narrow minded view of foreigners and people with skin darker or lighter (if you look to the northern climates) is what I’m talking about. After traveling, most people realize that humans are alike, no matter where they grew up, who their parents were and were more open to learning which is what I meant about those not having passports. They lack the curiosity.
I would add that not only is it a lack of curiosity, but I complete faith that there is nothing out there possibly better than the good ole’ U.S. of A. I regret to say it, but my parents fall directly into this class. I love them to death and I believe they did a great job raising me as a child, but they see no reason to even visit another country (I lived in China for a year and they couldn’t understand why I would ever want to live somewhere else, let along a Communist country). They just can’t imagine a better life, though they routinely complain about their own. I think it all owes its roots to American exceptionalism and something Professor K has mentioned many times…the “shining city on a hill” mentality.
Rusty, that’s another observation as well…Nothing is better than the USA! We have some advantages but some of the disadvantages outweigh the good. Health care access and costs could be considered one of the key items where the disadvantages occur for our citizens.
I think that everyone can appreciate the patriotic feelings, but when you look at the unvarnished data, a lot of people in the wealthy nations are better off than in the USA. Doug Masson just cited a demographic map, published in the NYT, showing “it’s tougher for people from the bottom quintile to rise to the top quintile in Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, and the Old Confederate States.” Then there is the New Scientist study that shows the U.S. is among the sickest of the wealthy countries, and then comes the problem of galloping inequality mentioned by the president today that is guaranteed to produce more demagogues than you can count. The U.S. is also not among the “happiest” countries (Look to Norway for that.) Like the saying goes, “If you want to live the American dream, move to Denmark”. It’s like the people who live in flood-prone areas, and you ask why in the world they choose to live there. They say, “I was born here”.