I invite everyone here to look around, real hard. The only thing that is keeping America going is our reputation. The dollar is toilet paper if we loose that. Our industry is going, going, gone!. And we need way too much gas to keep this country running.

I figure our grandkids, maybe our greatgrandkids, will be living in the largest "third world" country.

Re Frenchy's questions:

Let me preface this by saying I don't hate police officers.There are about four people I've met in life whom I would follow blindly if asked to because I was impressed with not only their abilities, but their character ... one was my father, another was an editor and two others were tough-as-nails street cops who were, at heart, gentle and uncommonly decent men.

With that said, Frenchy, I've noticed in the part of America where I live a growing trend for people in authority to abuse authority. They do what they want because they can, without thought toward another's rights or even dignity. On them, the idea of "public servant" is lost.

It is particularly galling to many Americans, I think, because we were raised under an ethic that says "Go your own way. If you are not harming another, you have every right to."

Our country was founded by people who had first-hand knowledge of abuses by a large, uncaring government, yet our government .... and in a way, we ourselves ... are becoming like those we once rallied against. And it saddens me, because I think both government and media are, utlimately, merely a reflection of society at large.

In short, I think something has changed in the American character, and characteristics that we once held as ideals ... courage, personal leadhership, a care for the less able ... are becoming rarer and rarer. It seems to me, at times, that our American society has become one of self-involvement.

I'm no great thinker and have no clue if it is attributable to the economy and modern U.S. business practices, overcrowded urban life or some general widespread failure in personal leadership. There's something amiss in the land of the free, and it's hard to pin down exactly what it is.

Someone once said, "I love my country; I fear my government." In a land where we taught to believe in a government "of the people, by the people, for the people," it is an unsettling sentiment, but one hard to avoid.

Or maybe I'm just a boy from the country who has been too long in the city. Truthfully, I haven't got a clue.

In the life of civilizations, I suppose America is still a youth.

MGF:

Would you double post this over to the thread on searches? It is particualrly apt for that discussion.

I agree with you completely.

I think I can tell you when it became common for people in possitions of authority to abuse it. When they started calling those they serve "civilians", rather than "citizens". I had to laugh in a town road manager's face once when he did that- sorry, the town had one stop light and eight stop signs on it's paved roads. (I was working for a road marking company.) His pompacity was amazing when I yelled at him for going the wrong way on a one way and almost squashing a painting rig. "It's ok, I'm not a civilian."

Still makes me chuckle.

To me, "civilian" is a semi-derogitory term applied to foriegn non-combatants by persons serving actively in a military capacity. If they are Americans, they are "citizens".

But I was raised funny, I think.

That's why I keep saying the U.S. is going to Hades in a handbasket... it's definitely not the country I remember growing up in, and it hasn't changed for the better. We've had the rise, now we've begun the fall... LOOK OUT BELOWWWWW!!!

My fault !
I should have opened a new post "around the campfire", and not divert this thread from its original direction...

but that question just sprang (?) in my mind, when writing the joke about TSA.

I think you're hedging your bets with "grandkids". Do ya REALLY think it's gonna take that long???

I'm being optimistic with my pessimism.

"When they started calling those they serve "civilians", rather than "citizens". "

That's the truth. TV news has propagated that crap but now, unfortunately, it's become ingrained.

Regards, Vince