Sooo it's the 4th of July, and really I don't care. Its not that I have issues with The United States and what it means, or I should say meant.... I don't like to get to political here, but since it's the day we talk about the Birth of our Nation let me state for the record... My name is Eric and I was a high school Republican.
Now before I get a bunch of shit hear me out I went to punk rock/ leftie art high school USA. Really the power brokers in the school were former 60s radicals who enforced and preached a radical feminist social reconstruction agenda. As you might imagine most of the student population (about 98%) voiced social and political viewpoints slightly to the left of your garden-variety socialist. Its safe to say that the social science teachers liked having me in class because my presence didnt force them to play devils advocate, because I would and did gladly voice the right wing (really even then I was a moderate) point of view. They even gave me an award for it at the senior award banquet. I paid for my views, I was ostracized, taunted, bad mouthed, threatened and ignored for my view points..
It was a huge culture shock to leave the people republic of Ann Arbor and find out that the rest of the United States (for the most part) still was living in a way where sexism, racism, and discrimination were commonplace. I couldnt even get my mouth to from the word pussy when I left high school, let alone any other degrading dehumanizing terms that are commonplace in the real world. But I digress
In college I flirted with more libertian points of view, but found that few libertians were interested in anything more than freedom from big government, but with out the personal responsibilities to their communities, and thats where I am sort of
I simply think that we need to look to ourselves and to each other to solve our societal problems. That means that we step forward and say that we will fund our local school, and tell the federal government to fuck its self then they want money to fix our schools. If we fix it first then they dont have any reason get involved. If we were to hold our local governments responsible for fixing issues, or better yet as a community fix them then we would have more control on how, when, why and which way they get fixed Basically its a case of the government that is most responsive is the one that is closest to you if your local mayor has more say in the school budgeting than the president, s/he is directly affected by the quality of that school. S/he will likely send his/her kids there, or the kids of the people next door, and is more likely to give a damn about the school..
Ok enough of my soapbox. I will add one last item on the topic its funny to look back at high school and recall that all the lefties who couldnt shut up about how evil, selfish, into violence and generally bad republicans were, are the same people that threatened men, hated me and treated me like a lesser being because I had a different view point than the majority. Mean while my republican grandparents were the ones that gave me money, that cared about me, and that questioned my interests and hobbies but never shunned me for them
So you might be asking yourself how did some high school republican, with a Christian upbringing, and a career in Law Enforcement end up being off the scale politically and into punk rock? Thats another story I should try to figure out some time Until then I am simply a passenger and I ride and I ride
End Note: funny I was just recalling that the first time I stayed up all night was a fourth of July when I was in Jr. High school. I was reading a fantasy novel and stayed up to read it. That might have been the first time I read a complete book in one sitting
Lastly I dig Nordic films about dysfunctional families, and have found this Icelandic film called The Sea, which rocks, if youre a fan of Festen (aka The Celebration) you should check it out.
Now before I get a bunch of shit hear me out I went to punk rock/ leftie art high school USA. Really the power brokers in the school were former 60s radicals who enforced and preached a radical feminist social reconstruction agenda. As you might imagine most of the student population (about 98%) voiced social and political viewpoints slightly to the left of your garden-variety socialist. Its safe to say that the social science teachers liked having me in class because my presence didnt force them to play devils advocate, because I would and did gladly voice the right wing (really even then I was a moderate) point of view. They even gave me an award for it at the senior award banquet. I paid for my views, I was ostracized, taunted, bad mouthed, threatened and ignored for my view points..
It was a huge culture shock to leave the people republic of Ann Arbor and find out that the rest of the United States (for the most part) still was living in a way where sexism, racism, and discrimination were commonplace. I couldnt even get my mouth to from the word pussy when I left high school, let alone any other degrading dehumanizing terms that are commonplace in the real world. But I digress
In college I flirted with more libertian points of view, but found that few libertians were interested in anything more than freedom from big government, but with out the personal responsibilities to their communities, and thats where I am sort of
I simply think that we need to look to ourselves and to each other to solve our societal problems. That means that we step forward and say that we will fund our local school, and tell the federal government to fuck its self then they want money to fix our schools. If we fix it first then they dont have any reason get involved. If we were to hold our local governments responsible for fixing issues, or better yet as a community fix them then we would have more control on how, when, why and which way they get fixed Basically its a case of the government that is most responsive is the one that is closest to you if your local mayor has more say in the school budgeting than the president, s/he is directly affected by the quality of that school. S/he will likely send his/her kids there, or the kids of the people next door, and is more likely to give a damn about the school..
Ok enough of my soapbox. I will add one last item on the topic its funny to look back at high school and recall that all the lefties who couldnt shut up about how evil, selfish, into violence and generally bad republicans were, are the same people that threatened men, hated me and treated me like a lesser being because I had a different view point than the majority. Mean while my republican grandparents were the ones that gave me money, that cared about me, and that questioned my interests and hobbies but never shunned me for them
So you might be asking yourself how did some high school republican, with a Christian upbringing, and a career in Law Enforcement end up being off the scale politically and into punk rock? Thats another story I should try to figure out some time Until then I am simply a passenger and I ride and I ride
End Note: funny I was just recalling that the first time I stayed up all night was a fourth of July when I was in Jr. High school. I was reading a fantasy novel and stayed up to read it. That might have been the first time I read a complete book in one sitting
Lastly I dig Nordic films about dysfunctional families, and have found this Icelandic film called The Sea, which rocks, if youre a fan of Festen (aka The Celebration) you should check it out.