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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looking for someone to coddle your fragile sense of self-esteem, or tell you what you want to hear or to reinforce your outdated world view, then exit this page right now and go somewhere else.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...

 

February 13th, 2005

RE-WRITING THE PRESENT


It is amazing what a little perspective can do for the mind. I have found one of my greatest joys of late is to watch people re-write history in a way that makes them feel better... not about the events, but about how wrong they were of those events at the time they were unfolding.

For example, last weekend the Minnesota state assembly issued a "happy birthday" proclamation honoring the late President Ronald Reagan...

http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/local/10814811.htm

As is customary in such tokens of symbolism, commentary was included as well. The line that caught my eye was the one meant as a rebuke towards the current administration of George W Bush. It read:

Democrats…about…Reagan; hold up his presidency as "a lesson to the current administration in the areas of bipartisanship, economic recovery, and the need for world support in foreign initiatives."

The last line in particular jumped out at me not because it's new (it isn't, people have been screaming about Bush's "go it alone" attitude for 4 years), not because it's necessarily wrong as a commentary on the current administration, and not because it's trite and immature (which it is…I mean, c'mon, "scolding" the president within a proclamation honoring a completely different administration? Is this the best we can do now)?

The thing that jumps out is the complete re-writing of history a scant 20 years later. To suggest even for a moment that Ronald Reagan had "world support in foreign initiatives" is to insult the intelligence of all of us who lived through the presidency. Grenada? Missiles in Germany aimed at the Soviet Union? Iran Contra? Oslo? Star Wars? None of these things (and many others Reagan did) were supported by the "world." After Libyan leader Khadaffi blew up a German disco, killing two Americans, Reagan responded by launching an air strike on Tripoli that ultimately killed Khadaffi's daughter. France supported that idea so much that they refused to let our planes fly over their air space.

Reagan was reviled and condemned in his time as being a dangerous cowboy with no regard for his un-avoidable path towards nuclear holocaust. To claim otherwise is an insult. Just because Reagan was proven to have been mostly right about everything doesn't allow for these small-minded politicians to try re-writing how he accomplished it. He did NOT do it the way they wanted him to. He did it his way and he should be respected for it.

The proclamation got me thinking, though. It's not like this is a new thing. We re-write history constantly in this society to suit our needs of the present. People consistently tell the lie about how the students of the 1960's took to the streets and single-handedly brought down the Vietnam War. Complete rubbish, but it makes people of today feel empowered to march against other crap they don't believe in. (The downfall of the Vietnam war, for those of you who went to public school, was a pathetic lack of proper support for our troops by the government followed by a media onslaught never seen before or since which consistently reported only one side of the story; a point Walter Cronkite himself has ceded publicly).

So, let's re-write the present, shall we?

Look around at the events of today and try to imagine how they will be reported 20 years from now so that we can make all of the people who are right now against them feel better immediately.

It's the year 2030; American History books discussing the first decade of the 21st century will report the following;


· President George W Bush was a wildly popular leader, respected for his understanding of the United States' role of leadership in the world and unwavering in his desire to bring Democracy to the Middle East. He was viewed as a quiet genius who always seemed to be one step ahead of the rest of the world, although America's many allies felt he was a divider not a uniter. His vice-president, Dick Cheney, was a noble and loyal follower of the President who had little to do with policy making and was loved by all.

· For most people in America in the early 2000s, gay marriage was a foregone conclusion. It's legal passage sailed through the debate halls of the nation and homosexuals took their rightful place alongside other whole human beings in the United States.

· Tom Brady, the undisputed greatest quarterback of all time with his 6 Super Bowl rings, dominated the game when he played and was always mentioned as the greatest player in the sport. Mediocre talent of the time that never measured up and rightfully received very little attention included Payton Manning, Brett Favre, Donovan Mcnabb and Michael Vick.

· As history has proven time and again, America was ahead of the curve of the world water shortage now facing the planet. Countless hours of the year 2003 were spent debating and discussing the inevitable impending crisis coming to the earth, but only America was doing the talking. We knew then that the world had a water shortage, but no one wanted to act on it.

· Speaking of natural resource shortages, it was of course America who knew long before the rest of the World that a shift away from petroleum gas was inevitable. Though statistics are sketchy at this time, it is widely understood that despite rumors to the contrary, the United States never embraced the dreaded SUV craze that swept the world in the late 90's/early 2000's and in fact, quite to the contrary, the average American home in 2004 had 2.3 electric vehicles parked in its' yard.

· As we enter the second decade of the baby-boomer generation retirement onslaught, which has led to an unprecedented drain of our financial resources, one wonders how it is that none of our previous leaders ever tried to combat what would have surely been the inevitable problem facing us 30 years ago. There are rumors that both Presidents Clinton and W. Bush proclaimed that social security was nearing a crisis and that both lamely suggested privatizing a portion of it, but these rumors are not substantiated, despite video clips proving their legitimacy. By the way, the Dow Jones closed last year at 25000.

· The Chicago Cubs have now gone 124 years without winning a World Series.



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