America - Life 101 lecture

Land of the Free, Home of the Brave.
A little History Lesson. It's Europe, 1400 something. It was too costly to ship to and from India across all of Asia. So, someone decides, hey lets try to find another way around to get there, across the water. Bam we have the spanish discovering America.
Due to my own desire to keep my own head attached to my shoulders I am being required to remind everyone that before Columbus, America was discovered by Vikings. But if we are going to go that far, lets start at the beginning, when there was ice covering the whole of the northern hemisphere (at least). Nomadic peoples from the North-Eastern Asian nations walked their way to a place where they found somewhere stable enough to support their life. They wandered south until they found what we call the Americas today. These people became the Aztecs and the Indians. Aztecs had a slew of gods who demanded blood and sacrifices and adored the shine of gold. Native Americans were much more pacifistic and highly economical when it came to what they took and used. Both cultures use corn. Aside from one continent worshipping an earth deity and the other trying to appease a demanding sun god, basically, there wasn't much difference in these people.*
OK, Ancient history lesson over, Onto a more modern history. In the 16th century people from europe who wanted to practice their own choice religion decided since the monarchies weren't gonna let them dress in black and white and live a quiet life in constant prayer, they would move to America. A land of wonder where they had no king to answer to.
Over the course of the next 200 years all kinds of Europeans came to America. Mostly British, and some from other nations, who decided that religious freedom is all well and good, if it is not over run by the intoxicating effect of repressed feminine-magical ability in puberty.** So we got a bunch of free radicals (intelligent geeks) to come to the states and begin a group of colonies that would later blossom into the United States of America.
Now, here is where it is. We got guys like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Hancock to make up some guidelines for us to live by. Guidelines that aren't meant to be forgotten, but if the need arises, to overwrite them. They put out there, in plain english (so plain we still understand it today) what these colonies are standing for. Incase some of you don' know what our rights are, I'll put them down here for you to look over:
- you're allowed to say what you need to without worry about being limited.
- you're allowed to practice your religion, whatever that be.
- you are allowed to keep/maintain/use a weapon to protect yourself and your community from the harm of a threatening outside force.
- you are allowed to get together with a group to discuss matters of urgency.
- and you are allowed to create documentation that a group of people can stand behind in order to make a change when injustice rears its ugly head.
- also, the government can't take anything away from you that limits your natural rights unless they take the time to find out if you deserve that kind of treatment. This is the process of justice.
But we all knew that right? So why don't we look into some of the things America doesn't allow us.
- you are, for no reason, exempt from feeling insulted, angry, embarrassed, or hurt by the things people say.
- you are not allowed to stop someone else's personal way to connect to their deity. You don't have to like someone riding a giant immovable golden cow, at some too early time in the morning. (you are however, completely allowed to yell at the top of your lungs for them to stop it.)
- You can own a gun, a shovel, a flame thrower, a very large tree branch, photon lazer, sonic screw driver, Missile launcher, catapult, brass knuckles, nun-chucks, or whatever else you have laying around the house to protect your right to live the way you want to. You cannot however, use it for anything other than its intended purpose, unless of course that intended purpose is to remove someone else's natural liberties. Unless the situation is threatening your own natural liberties. I could imagine an American could throw the world into nuclear winter if he had a warhead and the whole world was against him, and taking away his rights to, I dunno, pee or something... but could you imagine? The world ending because someone with a nuclear weapon wasn't allowed to go to the bathroom?
yipes
- you are not allowed to not pay the price for a crime you have committed against your fellow man.
- you are not allowed to stop a group of people getting together, So even though it is against the law to impede on someone else's right to practice their religion, its completely ok for people to get together to discuss stoning people and burning churches. I think the point of this is based on versailles. You cannot, as a government official, member of the military, or part of a community stop anyone from going to talk to the king to figure out the best way for the community to function.
- and its really not in your best interest to go and scream at the capitol building about the changes you need to see made.

These are basic guidelines to living in this country. Easy as Apple Pie eh? (if you don't know, a good apple pie is really easy to make... if you can wait long enough, i promise to give you a recipe in "cookbook." But I wont tell you what that is yet. (Aren't inklings to surprises just inspiration killers?))

But let's take a momentary look at the songs that define our country.

The Star Spangled Banner

Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen thro' the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand,
Between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Bet you didn't know there was so much longer than we normally sing. Well kiddies I went to a place called "Francis Scott Key" middle school. This was back in the day when Fairfax County public schools were number 3 in the nation. Take that rest of the country, except 1 and 2, whomever you were. Back to the point. Our Grand Olde Flag always waves in a kind of defiance, in the darkness, into the new day it stands tall. Even as it wavers, it still flies. As we die, living or fighting for a free life from servitude or slavery, we have a symbol that illustrates what it is we stand for. It is simple, it is obvious. Beating in the heart of every American is the pride of a flag flowing unbound in the wind. This is our freedom, this is our right, this is out nation.

I'm proud to be an American. I have the right to bitch about how I think things can be better. I can get together with other people to talk about what I think needs to be done. I am allowed to stand on a soap box and express my ideas for a better future and inspire others to rally with me to change things. I can protest the war, make a scene to show people that something needs to be done. With numbers we can show people in power what it is we demand to be allowed. We can choose our life, we can build our own brighter tomorrow. All that is needed to assure our freedom is to stand up, call out, and be heard. Here, in this land of opportunity, we can have gold paved roads, rainbows on every street corner, super heroes, Free Heath Care, A black president, A woman president, A dog for President. My dreams can come true. Your dreams can come true. So whatever it is, you wanna style hair or sell shoes? It doesn't matter if you are Palestinian or Israeli, or if you wanna scale a building to tell someone to 'Guck the Fuverment,' Here is where it happens, here is where it's ok, here is where you can make that happen.
So Americans I ask you, what is your dream? What do we stand for? And when are you going to stand up? Stand Up! Stand up for yourself, for your family, for your dog, stand up, show your pride, and dammit, be the best american you can. All you have to do is chase your dreams.

Thank you, and goodnight.

* Here is a completely asinine Idea. Why don't the earth lovers stay in Northern America, and the God fearing move to South America. Somehow I get the feeling things would be easier all around if this juxtaposition were to take place.
**This is why teenage Goth Girls are so hot.