American Citizens Together

When I think of this song I think of this music video (above), which has a rather amazing 'treadmill dance."

In times of great confusion and vociferous conflicts of opinion and great dangers it's difficult to know what is true and what is not.

In Medieval Days alchemist and goldsmiths were keen to have a "touchstone," a stone that, when scraped, could tell them if the composition of ore was pure gold or not.

A treadmill is a great touchstone. It's part of the stress test doctors give to see if a person's heart is okay. Most of the time when we go to the doctors they don't ask us to do pushups or anything but in this case you often have the doctor, physician's assistant or nurse standing by your side screaming and cheerleading: "Go! Go! Go!" because they have to have your heartbeat very high for the chemical test to work.

For people in good condition, like runners, it make take them a half-hour to get their heart beating that fast since it would be a muscle in good condition for them.

For sedentary folks it might only take less than ten minutes.

If you can't even do it, though, if you fall down on the treadmill and scroll down and get dumped on the floor, I guess you failed the test.

Wouldn't it be nice if we had such a touchstone or treadmill that could test the truth, the real condition of "what condition our nation is in."

Joblessness is going back to record highs. Inflation is hitting so strong so that not only are people complaining about the price of gas but also the price of bread, milk, a can of beans, etc.

We've run out of money to build or repair a decaying system of roads and bridges. Wall Street bankers have walked away with millions of dollars in profits and stuck us with six trillions dollars of bad debt. We're in a war for proven false reasons but still act like we want to win it. Osama bin Laden lives free.

The Republicans base their divide and conquer politics on lies, slander, culture wars, and personal destruction of opponents. Our Justice Department has been used to hound Democrats and protect Republican, and the DOJ officials involved and Karl Rove refuse to even respond to subpoenas (a criminal act).

Our civil liberties have been invaded. Constitutional and International Laws like the Geneva Convention violated (by policies of secret prisons, torture, indefinite detention, murder and rape of prisoners, starting pre-emptive unjustified wars, etc.)

Not to be a nihilist can be hard under such circumstances. Not to weep for all we have lost and all we have done wrong takes some restraint.

At the end of the day, we must elect better leaders. We must vote for better leaders. But maybe we also need to do more. Maybe we have to be vocal and active more than just during elections.

Maybe we need to change the way we do things somehow. Maybe better leaders could figure this out and have the courage and determination to push through real positive change.

We can only hope so. We have to hope so because nihilism doesn't work, crying about a world that "is not fair," doesn't work.

Maybe doing something to care about people in our own communities might help. Care for senior citizens and the sick. Care for education and the hearts and spirits of the young. Care for our schools and liberties. And take a little time to care for ourselves too.

Change our politics somehow? Reform something. Do something.
At least think about it.

Because -- News Flash -- we're failing the treadmill test.
There's is no doubt about that.

Our condition is not good.

Our once-valued, respected Uncle Sam is being ripped apart by dogs.

Isn't this obvious?

This old song, "I Just Dropped In to See What Condition My Condition Was In," by country-western singer Kenny Rodgers, became noted in those Lost Days of The Sixties for describing a person in deep confusion (to say the least).

Dragged up from the old bygone days, in 1998, the song became part of the soundtrack of the movie, "The Big Lebowski," which was noted for excessive foul language, a lost stoner being chased by gangsters, cops, three German nihilist, his ex-wife and then --- BOOM --- sudden surprising violence erupting from innocent and sometimes not-so-innocent scenes (like arguing over scoring in a bowling game). Trailer

The movie is also noted for insane quotes as the main character wanders around in a dreamlike daze and crazy streams of consciousness pour out of him, like Leopold Bloom in the famous novel by James Joyce, Ulysses.

One of the noted quotes comes from one of the German nihilist who complains that certain aspects of a kidnapping ransom deal are not "fair."

Perhaps it is the sheer fact of a self-described nihilist complaining about something not being fair; or perhaps it's the sheer fact of expecting property in a kidnapping ransom deal, but this comment distresses one of Lebowski's violence-prone friends who thus throws a bowling ball at the nihilist and shouts:

"Fair!, Who's the *$%#@!&! nihilist here! What are you, a bunch of *$%#@!&! crybabies?"

Not to be a crybaby nor a nihilist, I sometimes wonder though if we should be despondent and crying out at the total lack of integrity which relentlessly drives our nation from one war to the next.

For five years we have invaded and now occupy Iraq, lost over 4,000 of our own soldiers, not to mention we now have probably killed over half-a-million Iraqi's and made millions homeless and refuges. Not a bad death count for a supposed majority Christian nation, in a war based on lies. The number of destroyed homes, factories, farms, infracture also show's our military might and power.

Amazingly we continue all this when we now know these people had nothing to do with 9/11 or WMD's -- while those two reasons -- 9/11 and WMD's - were what the White House claimed and what was used to motivate the nation to war.

For all of this year and more, we have been saber-rattling and threatening Iran with invasion, with our warships with cruise missiles patrolling along their coasts, over 6,000 miles from home, with economic sanctions, with covert operations and black ops, all based on claims and building up fear because of weapons they don't have -- and weapons they say they are not seeking.

It's time to ask some questions about all this.

We are building a missile base on the Russian border in Poland and claim either these missles are: A)Defensive and aimed at no one or B) to provide a missile shield against Iran (!?)

Now we find out there are U.S. troops, trainers, advisors, mercenaries and "private security contractors," in Georgia and after an ill-advised attack by Georgian troops armed with U.S. weapons we have quickly send Georgia $1 billion cash in aid and are we are delivering, we claim, baby food, diapers, and other basic supplies on warships armed with cruise missiles.

Delivering diapers on warships armed with cruise missiles? Building a missile base on the Northeast of Russia's border to protect us from Iran (who has no missiles to reach us and has no nukes). What is any sane person suppose to think? Maybe we should try to sell the Russians the Brooklyn Bridge next?

Now, too, our ground troops that occupy Afghanistan and are invading into Pakistan, despite Pakistan's clear objections.

We don't like China and want to introduce our "freedoms," there. We don't like Venezuela and want to introduce our "freedoms," there. We don't like Cuba and they need freedom too.

We also have "drug wars," against our own people and we have the largest prison population in the world.

We also support South American dictators and Arab sheiks , we corrupt, buy and set up puppet governments around the world.

Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Palestinian, Russia, China, Venezuela, Cuba, Somalia and other intrusions into Africa, the Philippines and intrusions into Indonesia, and everything else. It just has to make you wonder: "What condition our condition is in?"

The only way anyone could legitimately support this government is to have amnesia or Alzheimer's disease, be totally blind to reality or be like a lawyer in court who argues for his client even though he knows his client is guilty of murder.

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