Thursday, May 22, 2008

The Concept is Still Golden


The other night, I was watching a documentary on The Sundance channel called, Off the Grid, Life on the Mesa. I thought it would be about tips on how to “live off the grid.” Well, it wasn’t anything like I expected. I had mixed emotions about the show. My feelings were hammocked between, revulsion for gun toting fringe parasites, to admiration for societal misfits, giving the finger to the rules of society.

They interviewed a man who is a Veteran of the first Gulf War. It was compelling listening to him, because despite the fact he believed our country was a mess. He was willing to go back and fight for it all over again. His reasoning being that the “concept this country was founded upon is still golden.” And I realized I was relating to this Veteran, who was riddled with cancer, living in an old school bus in the middle of the desert in New Mexico.

We all have something that connects us, from the most flamboyant man marching in a Gay Pride parade in San Francisco, to the callused hands of the farmer working his fields in the mid-west, to the soldier in Afghanistan and Iraq, to the protestor in the street. All are a part this vast ocean of differing opinions and views we call America. No matter how fouled up we think this country is and believe me, I think we have a real mess on our hands, we are all linked by a piece of paper, the Constitution. So, no Mr. Bush it is NOT just a piece of paper. It is the glue that holds us all together, because every American still believes, down deep, the concept that built these United States is still golden.



copyright Sherry Obsheatz

4 comments:

paisley said...

and it leads one to wonder... is believing ever going to be enough.....

Sayani said...

thats an intellectual concept all together ...but the question is ; are the diplomats hearing ?

Ralph Murre said...

Beautiful. Thanks for this good post. Thanks for this good blog.

Id it is said...

Disparate though we may seem we are the American identity; one that defies all definition.