America...

[Javaman]

There is a great old song by Simon and Garfunkel, called "America".

I absolutely love this song.

I was a kid and first heard it back in the sixties. I perceived it as; America being something different something more. I knew then, even though I was young, that yes, America had its share of self imposed problems, but we, as a nation, strived to do better.

it was a time when people actually believed in that "shining beacon on the hill" actually existed.

civil rights was now law, we were going to the moon and soon women would have autonomy over their bodies.

I would listen to this song and it gave me a type of hope. the hope that: I may not get the America I want right now, but my kids or my grand kids will certainly have it.

but as time wore on, the selfless destruction and coring out of America's middle class and further degrading of the poor, was slow and sometimes blunt degradation of our rights and the, I believe, deliberate removal of privacy.

death by a thousand cuts.

little by little republicans and ineffectual dems chipped away at our freedoms, unions and our voices.

but we as a nation, are also to blame, we had fallen asleep, lulled by images of endless growth at the expense of our dreams of freedom.

everything was just a gossamers veil.

And sadly, we awoke from our slumber surprised, hung over and felt taken advantage of.

I listen to this song now and I cry. I think so much of what this nation could have been. it's the case of the bright student with so much potential, pissing it all away to chase after dreams of never. ending up angry at their own folly and resentful of a future frittered away but too proud to admit that mistake.

we bury ourselves in carbon, we bathe in plastic and we eat chemicals and yet we still ask for more.

?si=iOlWRdJkCnYmFh3T

[ChazInAz]

1. Oh gods, but I remember this!

Over fifty years ago, a friend of mine by the name of Tim Roberts would perform this as part of his solo act at The Phoenix: my college coffee house. He was a good-looking guy, a fellow actor, with an amazing voice. The wistful sorrow he brought to this number was heart-breaking. I expected Tim to become a star, with his gifts as a singer and actor. Alas, Ronald Reagan's indifference to the AIDS epidemic took his great talent from us.
I still miss him.

[Javaman]

2. that's truly heartbreaking.

I guess, people of a certain age (us), we all lost friends to AIDs while ray-gun and nancy twiddled their thumbs.