I've been working this post over in my head for a while now. And I have come to the very realization that I am becoming decidedly jaded and well bitter toward the world and that this post is going to be disjointed.
And I can pretty much pin point the moment in which it happened. Bucky Balls. When they were taken off of the market for lack of parenting here in the US, something inside me broke. And whatever it was that broke opened my eyes to the very real possibility that we have no real future. Or at least not one without another massive, messy civil war.
But that will never happen. People are too scared. People are too comfortable and too damned brain washed to want to do anything. We, and by we I mean the great, grand, wonderful people of the US are one of the most religious nations in the world. We are one of the least educated. We are one of the least healthy. We are one of the fattest. We are one of the brokest (and yes, I'm dipping into 'third-world' stats here). We have more prisons than pretty much anyone else. Yet our crime rate is one of the highest.
We can't even make anything anymore of our own.
People don't know the difference between Hemp and Marijuana. Nor do most people know that we used to grow hemp for food, for clothing for sustainability And the government has made it illegal (In case you were not aware- hemp does NOT get you high, but it does make paper that never fades, or yellows with very little pollution-- see the Declaration of Independence).
Yes that paragraph kinda jumps off topic but so does my brain, a lot.
Oh and the government has also made illegal to use peach pits for medical purposes This one is great-- peach pits when played with by science shows a very small percentage of actually helping cure cancer... But it's illegal.
And all of this, making things illegal- I think, is why we are so flaming stupid. We are now to protect our children to the point where children run the house hold. Whipping a child for starting fires will get you locked up (local story from Newport News, VA- would actually look for it but I am being lazy). But basically, Child Protective Services says it's OK to let your child start fires because it's wrong to slap them and tell them no, AFTER you've TOLD them no.
See the fire starting happens after what I see at work every day. The kids that STEAL from my store, daddy brings the items back, and then BUYS them something else to make them stop screaming because I took the item back. This has happened more than once.
Then the school thing. I live on the East Coast, where most people speak a bit differently, but, you know, I can't understand half of them. When a person walks up to my counter, picks up a foil wrapped toy (GO-GO Crazy Bones) and asks "Is dis snacks?" I don't know what to say. After two days, literally I figured out exactly what that person said and realized that they asked if that toy was edible. Um. No. Here's the kicker that person was about 10, and I find out later is an honor student at his school.
Is dis snacks.
And just last month I had a teacher laugh at me when I offered a spelling type bored game for her and her class. She informed me that in public schools, at least in the district she works in, spelling tests were not offered any longer and vocabulary tests were all multiple choice. I felt sick. I feel sick typing that.
What the hell are we doing?! I mean really?
As a dreamy eyed teenager I remember thinking that the future held possibilities-- even as a dreamy eyed twenty something, yet, now, not so much.
Those who are excelling, do- but there are so few of them compared to those whom are now 'industry standard'. And a few can change things, but this is like emptying the ocean with a teaspoon.
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