Posted by giveawayboy on June 06, 2002 at 23:30:10:
In Reply to: John, I will answer your post in detail later today..... posted by giveawayboy on June 06, 2002 at 08:07:14:
Well John, here's my response to what you wrote, and hopefully, my vision of America--you know, the way I see it.
: : Well I suspect this is going to end up in a big discussion in which neither side changes their mind, but as the flag boy for this kind of thing I thought i should speak up.
And do so, as you have the freedom to; here I recall Bob's post...
: : ....our american culture is crass, selfish and extremely wasteful. On average, americans use far more resources per person than any other nation in the world. .....This nation generates fat, selfish, egotistical hypocrites.
Agreed! But, I am basing this simply on what I have heard as I have not had the opportunity to travel as of yet.
: : So then, what do I beleive personally? That God places governments in power and he takes that power away. He is in control, and we are His children. Wouldn't our time be better served in teaching people how to love and live in that love regardless of the government. Let those things of the world come and go as they please, I prefer to live morally and justly and take care of my family and my tribe. If you feel called to work within the beast, by all means do it, but as for me, I choose to live in the greater reality where God changes people's hearts and lives.
I see history as many different lenses on two things, space and events. I think the whole thing is about interactions. I am trying to find out how the universal space and action are evidenced in local, tangible ways. This could mean anything and everything from gatherings at a crime scene, to a wedding, to a national government. All of these can be little incarnations of that space and event model. I don't look at history as a line of progress. However, I believe that things might be progressing in a certain organic way. I don't claim to know what all those things are. Also, I think that they are cyclical, appearing to diverge and then collapse or congeal, sort of like endless creations and destructions and recreations of ongoing reality. My American vision can sneak in here. I don't view America as a mere discovery, a young nation, running into greatness along a westward path. I don't see here as that linear. I see America as something vast and great and mythological and real. I see America as an ocean-born dream, a space dream in which an event occurs. I see her as tall as Paul Bunyun, as true as the White Buffalo Calf Woman, as generous and creative and enterprising as Johnny Appleseed. I see her as a great nation, made up of many hundreds of nations. She is uniquely herself in her tributaries and vast plains. She is uniquely herself in swampland and mountain peaks. She is a wheatfield. She is corn. She is everything that ever happened on the back of a great turtle which swam up from the ocean to catch Sky Woman as she fell from the first world, into this one. I believe in an America that is much older than all our myths about her. I believe in an America that is much more real and enduring than our little 250-300 year note-taking episode. I believe that the real America is buried under the veneer America. I believe in her and I hope to see that America each day since I believe that under all the hype, she is actually still here, wherever her children gather with good wills.
: : finally, it isn't always as simple as just moving out, which I would have done long ago, had other factors not come into play, such as my family, who wasn't willing to go, and the fact that I feel God placing me here right now.
yeah, I for one, and I think a few others, feel very happy about staying. I really want to get to know my local area too. I want to get to know as much about my city as I can. And the region, the state, the country. I really feel like I'm supposed to be here now, and appreciate it. And I do.