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| Rob's Soapbox | ||
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Congratulations!
You have finally landed on the one page on this entire site (and on the entire internet for that matter) that is purely without bullshit... my soapbox page. There are a lot of times during our show that, whether it's because of time constraints and other obligations, I don't always get to address some issues that I feel don't get the attention they deserve. There are even more times when I just don't feel like waiting until the show the next day to get some things off my chest. Thus, I have started the "Rob's Soapbox" page. If you have clicked on this page looking for someone to coddle your fragile sense of self-esteem, or tell you what you want to hear or to reinforce your outdated world view, then exit this page right now and go somewhere else. If you are in search of the last forum for reason and common sense left in the world, then sit back, relax, and enjoy. I make only one promise with this soapbox page... if you read long enough and often enough, you will eventually be offended. So here's my latest soapbox. Listen up, 'cause you just might learn something... |
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December 11th, 2006 SOME PATRIOTIC CHRISTMAS SCHMALTZ First of all, yes, "Schmaltz" is a word. In fact, it's of Yiddish origin and it means "excessive sentimentality." Schmaltz is used to describe people, statements or positions that eschew fact and reason and deal with affairs of the heart, thus being "overly sentimental." I guess you could say that this week's Soapbox is relatively Schmaltzy when compared to the usual tone of logic, reason found in this space, along with, usually, a complete and utter disdain for all things feeling. I come to you here and now with a plea for pause. Just a moment of your time is all I ask this holiday season. Allow me to digress for a moment and describe how I celebrate a different holiday, thus providing you a genesis for my request this week. Every Fourth of July, for as long as I can remember now, I take a moment to myself. Despite the fact that my wife and I have for years hosted an annual celebration that ranges from some to dozens of people, I insist that I sequester myself for at least five minutes. I try to do it early in the day, sometimes before a round of golf, sometimes later in the day before the guests arrive and the drinking and the partying begin. The point of the solitude is to force myself to remember and reflect upon the origins of the United States of America, the great leaders that formed this nation and the countless number of heroes who have defended it. When I first began doing this, in the early 90's, it was motivated by the first Gulf War which was the first time in my adult life that America had truly been engaged in a massive military battle that I could comprehend. Those first two years of reflection on Independence Day were about those troops, then, serving our nation. After that, my reflections waned back to the original founding fathers and my obsession with George Washington and what a great man and leader he was. Since then, I have become a history nerd, obsessed primarily with American history and how and why we became the nation that today is simultaneously loved and loathed by so many. I have also continued to find time on the Fourth, every year, to reflect on who made us and keeps us great. I don't share this with you to make myself appear selfless, honorable, patriotic, idealistic or heroic. Nor do I say it from a position of haughtiness or judgment upon you, I simply tell you as a means to explain, if not, justify my request for you this holiday. I have never denied my love of America. I find it to be the most unequivocally spectacular nation and society assembled on the planet Earth ever, in the known history of time. No country has ever offered so much to so many and delivered. I find people who fail in America to be pathetic; keeping in mind that what makes America great is that failure is subjective on many levels. You are the one who decides what defines your version of the American Dream. It isn't about money, possessions, toys, family friends, it's about any or all of those things because in the land of plenty you can have as many or as few of them as you desire, as long as you work for each. In a country that offers so much, there is no one but the individual to blame when he or she decides to stop trying and declares that the American Dream is not available to them. Fine, I say, get out of the way and make room for those who are willing to work for their piece of the dream. No matter how much privilege or poverty you are born or thrust into in this country, you can not just survive, but thrive, and the choice is solely and wholly your own. I am sickened by the growing number of America-haters who live right here in the U.S.A. who form their ignorant, elitist opinions about the nation from skewed, narrow-minded origins. Without America, and all that it has done and offered and continues to do, the world would be a very dank, dark place. The nation is far from perfect, but it's the best one there is. Which brings us to my request; Time and time again throughout history, we have been told as a nation that we were the problem with the world. Before America even was a nation, in 1775, and throughout the revolutionary war, 66% of the people living in America told Washington and those that thought like him that he was the problem… he was selfish, a malcontent and a trouble maker. How dare he demand to live free of what he called "oppression," when the British Empire provided so much? It was true that people who lived in America then had the highest standard of living of anyone on Earth, save Britain, and many were complacent and happy to have what they had. How dare George Washington claim that there was more? What an arrogant ass, he was. Today, we sit at the precipice of another global struggle. Many of you believe that the War on Terrorism is nearing an end but the truth is the exact opposite. We are at the beginning of a very long, hard struggle, just like the cold war, which actually began in the early 1950s and didn't end until the early 1990s. Then, like now, there were missteps and mistakes and then, like now, the battles, literal and figurative were worth it. Through all of our history, beginning before we even had a history back in 1775 and continuing until today, one thing has remained constant. One thing has separated the United States of America from all others. It would be easy to say that the thing that has made us great has been our vision, our desire for liberty, our perseverance, or any other handful of buzz-words that are thrown around whimsically at cocktail parties, but those things are all too simplistic and complicated at once. Whether it was 1775, 1941 or 1989, we were right each time and all the other countless times I didn't mention when we, as a nation, stood up to evil and oppression and demanded that it stop, whether here or abroad. The one thing that remained constant through all those times and allowed us to be proven right was our bravery, provided by the United States military. America haters claim wrongly that we have done nothing more than bully people into our way of thinking. This type of rhetoric is profoundly stupid on two fronts; first of all it presumes that people don't want to be free but more importantly and more insulting, it denies the courage, leadership, commitment and sacrifice provided by the millions of amazing men and women who have given up everything to provide not just this nation but this world, with so much of what it has today. Any schmuck can talk a good game… without the force to back it up, he's just another schmuck. Our military has provided that cover for many a schmuck over the decades, and more importantly has won doing so… and has thus provided all that you and I have this holiday season. Were it not for those who died, you and I would not have the opportunities we do today. Sure, we worked individually for our achievements, but what would that have mattered in a communist or Nazi run nation had our nation not prevailed previously? America is the richest, freest greatest nation in existence and even if you think you don't have a lot, the fact is that if you live in America you have more than most, not because we took it or deprived it from others, but because we created and defended the greatest system on the planet which continues to provide countless opportunities to thrive, by any definition, to everyone here. So my request to you is this; somewhere, somehow this holiday season take a moment. Remember not just all those that came before you to provide you with all that you have and will have, but most notably, remember those that right now are thousands of miles from home, away from their families, defending us. Remember too, that they volunteered. They raised their hands and said "I will," when someone asked who will defend this nation from current and future threats? We are forgetting already as a nation that a war rages half a planet away and it's a war that our neighbors, brothers, co-workers and sons and daughters are fighting… because they asked to go. Politics have no place during the solitude, just listen to your heart; the courage and selflessness of all those who serve and the people in their lives can't be unheard. The funny thing is that I already know what I'll hear. Simultaneously as I sit on the back deck of my over-priced home filled will possessions that will someday wind up buried in a landfill, drinking an overpriced alcoholic beverage, petting my overpriced dog and holding the hand of my wife which bears and overpriced ring, there will be a U.S. soldier in Iraq. He will be taking a moment to himself as well. As he sits in the very bowels of Hell on Earth, knowing that at any moment an I.E.D. could be headed his way in a nation that Fred Flintstone would find to be barbaric, arcane and pre-historic; this soldier will look to the sky and give thanks. He'll be there with nothing, yet he'll feel like he has it all for one reason; he is an American solider, doing his job as asked, and when he's done he will either have died dying for what he believes in, or he will come back home to the greatest nation in history, knowing that he played a part in preserving that legacy. That's what makes them heroes; they have no idea how great they are and don't want to be told it either. Take a moment. Do it for the troops, even though they'll never know. Do it for me, just because I asked. Most importantly, though, do it for yourself. A brief respite from being told how rotten your country is might just remind you how great the people that serve it are.
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