There is technically no constitutionally protected "right" to be stupid. But there is also no element of our founding documents specifically banning it either.
So we are kind of on our own in dealing with it as a society. As George Carlin sagely noted, "If you take the intelligence of the average American, you have to understand that half the people you will meet today just ain't that smart."
I'm going to start this missive by coming right out and saying that there is a LOT I don't like about the United States of America right now.
I most significantly dislike the routine misuse of governmental power in abusing small businesses and individuals.
I most especially dislike that during my lifetime we have ensconced a strangely "entitled" political class in our government that lives better than we do by selling us out to monied interests from large corporations, banks, oil companies, credit card companies etc.
I am sickened by the misguided policies of a liberal elite who don't know and don't know they don't know very much about anything, but NEVER face the music of their failed policies and "unintended consequences."
I am embarrassed by the spread of atheism and satanic influence across our increasingly Godless land.
I am humiliated that it is widely and publicly accepted in my land that mothers have the "right" to murder their offspring for convenience.
I am embarrassed at our backward approach to such basic and really pretty simple concepts such as alternative energy, technology, and our economy given proven and obvious alternatives that have already been demonstrated to work.
And believe it or not, I am personally offended and have direct and personal knowledge of the widespread abuse of power and trust by MANY, not a tiny minority but MANY trusted law enforcement professionals on a daily basis ALL OVER THE COUNTRY. And I am PERSONNALLY offended at the particular issue of men paid for by us and entrusted by us to provide for civil peace and order who DO murder young black men for "Walking While Black" and "Driving While Black.". Trust me, it HAPPENS and it happens much more than most American's would believe.
I am one of those bizarre rascist, mysogenist, homophobic, deplorables that Hillerary so deplores, as indeed I deplore her, that truly believes our country is going in the "wrong" direction. And not on a few issues. On a lot of issues.
The "women's" movement has given us an incredible divorce rate, basically the destruction of the American family, and the utterly discouraging fact that over half of our offspring that are NOT murdered and are allowed to live are fatherless bastards without benefit of clergy or a male figure in their homes.
And I'm further humiliated that the average college student in the United States now can't multiply 6 by 9 and get the answer correct given three guesses.
I could go on for days about all I'm unhappy about with the America we have today. And as I said, I am SPECIFICALLY ENRAGED that law enforcement professionals ROUTINELY murder people = not just blacks but probably disproportionately including them. Make no mistake, it happens and it is the heart of evil. I would gladly line up every police officer in the country and personally shoot every tenth man, Roman fashion, to make the decimation point.
But I had a recent conversation with a close personal friend. He is 75 years old, a respected and educated professional, and a superb bridge player. He has an amazing intellect. But he said to me that if Hillary Clinton was elected President of the United States, he was seriously considering emigrating to another land, perhaps Costa Rica.
I was dumbfounded. Actually stunned into silence for a few moments. I asked him, "Have you any idea what you are saying?"
And it struck me that there is just a huge gulf between myself and many of my friends, based solely on my history of being OUTSIDE the United States routinely, and theirs where their only glimpse of other countries is from the deck of a cruise ship.
Mine of course was from the deck of an aircraft carrier. But there is a slight but important difference.
As a young man, I joined the United States Navy at the tender age of 18. I didn't really want to. I was talked into it by a very close friend of mine, who wanted me to join with him. And ironically he wound up not going. But that's another story.
I DID get to travel and see the world. In fact, I got to go be in a war. How exciting is that? And not being one of George Carlin's lesser half, I paid close attention. Indeed, I married a girl from the Philippine Islands and visited many countries throughout Asia as well as the Middle East and Africa. I was overseas for 44 months of my six years in the Canoe Club. And I absorbed with keen attention, anything I could learn of these foreign peoples, in a very deliberate and studied fashion. On my return, I keenly focused on a delightful opportunity to see my land through the eyes of my young bride. And NONE of it escaped me. I carefully observed this AGAIN when her sister arrived in the U.S. and ultimately married a man who I started the first grade with.
On returning to the U.S., I quickly learned that many of my peers, having never left Southeast Missouri, nonetheless had very strong opinions about the world, the United States, and politics of course. And I quickly learned, as many many U.S. servicemen do I have to tell you, that there are just some conversations you can't have with your friends. They don't get it. And they aren't going to get it. And there is nothing you can say to give it to them. So just shut up.
It's like explaining marital relations to a cat. First, the cat doesn't care about human marital relations. But if it DID care, it is devilishly difficult to put into terms a cat would understand. Marital relations have nothing to do with how it smells given a keen sense of smell, or barely what it looks like under low light conditions. It is not prey. And it won't make kittens. So it's just not something you can share with your cat.
We DO rail against the rather obvious corruption and "pay for play" illustrated so clearly by Bill and Hillerary Clinton. We are OFFENDED by it. We are ALARMED by it. And we are DISGUSTED by it. It is wrong. It in unAmerican. Many of us consider it treason.
But understand this. In MOST countries in the world, it isn't uncommon. Understand further that indeed, in most countries of the world, bribery and corruption are not even considered evil. They are how things work. And they are how things are EXPECTED to work. If you go to the Philippines, or Korea, or Thailand, or really almost anywhere in Asia or Africa or South America, as a MISSIONARY bringing food and money and building schools and churches. You HAVE to pay off the local police constabulary REGULARLY, along with the Mayor, perhaps the Governor, and scores of other public officials as a routine matter of business. IT IS HOW IT WORKS. And the population living there ACCEPTS it as how it works. And it works like that every day. Americans are all initially offended by this. But you can either accept it and go along or be very very unhappy there, that's just the way it is. And it is TOP to BOTTOM and there is nothing to report. And no one to report it to. THat's how they LIVE. It is their way of life.
And children die in the streets in front of you from diseases we don't even think of as diseases any more. Who dies of measles??? Influenza? Whooping cough? My little buddy Ugbert, rest in peace.
Well if you have absolutely no access to even the most rudimentary medical care and are so impoverished you can't even pay the local quack doctor, you do. I'm told there is real poverty in America. By Americans. Who have never SEEN poverty. Who cannot imagine it. Who I can't explain it to.
And poverty so deeply entrenched and profound that you want to fix it. Because you CAN fix it for just a couple bucks. Well the one in front of you. For the moment. And when you raise your eyes and see the scope of 30 million of them, or more, your testicles shrivel up into your stomach at the utter futility of trying to do anything. It is just unimaginably big. It's huge. It's unimaginably unfair. And there's not a goddamn thing you can do about it.
Clean drinking water. A fifth of the population of the planet right NOW has no access to it at all. For many others, it's a daily two hour round trip hike.
We run it out on the driveway from the garden hose while we hand wash our cars and let it run down the street. Clean, crystal clear, cool, water.
My own son was shot and killed a little over a month ago in Olongapo City Philippines by local police while in possession of less than a quarter ounce of Marijuana. They've killed 1800 in the past few months in a nationwide crackdown on drugs. Jack Gertolfo was 40 years old and had six children all under the age of 12. Bahala'na. In that land, it is considered the will of God.
The United States of America is blessed by God with a stunning cornucopia of riches, not because we particularly deserve it, but specifically to serve as an example of how to live as a people. An example to the rest of the world. We are indeed the light of the world and the shining city on a hill that Ronald Reagan so astutely understood. A land of FREEDOM. And individual LIBERTY. Where corruption and governmental malfeasance and corporate greed are considered to be WRONG. Where the populace is actually indignant where and when they occur.
And America does benefit from immigration. ALL the lazy, sick, and satisfied stay home. ONLY the ambitious, the bright, the healthy, the people who dream and want and strive for a better life are willing to endure the inconvenience, the discomfort, the pain and the humiliation of traveling to a land where they know no one and cannot even speak the language. Leaving behind family and friends and their dog. All that is familiar and comforting to them and that for many they will never see again. To go to a strange land of strangers. In the hopes for a better life. And cummulatively that is who we ARE. The genetic best of all the tribes of the earth who come here and then cross breed into a land of genetic supermen.
And every one with a different opinion. And a different agenda. And a different list of all the things that are wrong with America and should indeed be fixed.
The vast majority of Americans, and indeed the vast majority of white Americans, have nothing against you being black or being here. Historically, at 12% of the population, you would have been eradicated hundreds of years ago and we would have picked our own damn cotton. While there are a few nutcases in every box of cracker jack's, most Americans wish you well and many have been active in doing so. The first statewide convention that formed a platform and nominated candidates under the name "Republican" was held near Jackson, Michigan on July 6, 1854. It declared their new party opposed to the expansion of slavery into new territories and selected a statewide slate of candidates. Republicans were the FIRST political party in America formed specifically to oppose slavery.
Six years later, Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States representing that party. And he did eliminate slavery in this land by presidential decree with an emancipation proclamation. And at no small cost. Some 550,000 American men died in the ensuing melee discussing the situation, barely 6000 of whom were actually black. They bled and died in agony in one of the most brutal wars if its age. American against American. In some cases brother against brother. And when the smoke cleared, you were no longer legally entitled to slavery.
The subsequent hundred years have indeed been a messy, ugly adjustment to this new status. And I would not claim it has been easy or nice for anyone involved. But it has proceeded, and more or less directly. But do not fail to miss the point, HUNDREDS of thousands of white men gave their LIVES so you could be free. You did not earn your freedom. You did not fight for your freedom. It was paid for with the blood and entrails of white men who believed you were being done wrong.
We have a small group of Chinese students who attend the local university come to our home each Sunday for dinner. They are far from home and have no family here and have been drawn to our tradition of a large family dinner around this huge round table in my dining room that seats 13. I grew quite fond of one particularly bright and articulate young man named Sun Jialu who graduated "cum laude" here last year. He confided that his dream was to find a way to stay in the United States and live here. I was a bit surprised as I knew he was close to his father and family in China and so I kind of grilled him about it. But it was clear that he was intense on this dream of finding a way to stay here after his Master's program in California. Oh, and a Tesla. And a tall blonde wife with big hooters.
I told him that there are 375,000 Chinese nationals attending university here and asked him to estimate what percentage of them felt as he did. He looked at me deadly serious and told me "All of them Jack. Don't listen to anything they might say. ALL Chinese students in their hearts want to live in America."
And I reflected on what I had seen in Japan, and the Philippines, and Viet Name and Laos and Thailand, and Pakistan and Iran and in Mombassa Kenya. And in all of those places, in ways subtle and not so subtle, the prevailing and indeed nearly unanimous view was that America was somehow better and indeed anything fROM America was better. All are proud of their land and their people. But at the bottom of the conversation, America is better and would indeed be better for them if a choice were made.
And I would draw from that that with the exception of a few privileged people in a very few European countries, if you stripped away all the bluster and all the bullshit, everyone in Russia, and everyone in China, and everyone in most of the countries of the earth, if they thought they could have it, would choose to be an American.
Our blessings are eggregious. Understand that the United States of America sports 4.4% of the population of the world, and owns about 1/3 of all wealth and worldly goods IN that world.
And so my response to this bright educated man considering a life in Costa Rica was "Do you have any idea what you are saying?" America is a light unto the world, blessed by God and ordained to be so, and it IS worth fighting for. WHATEVER HAPPENS. If Hillerary the Godless heathen hussy felon is elected President of the United States, then she is MY President - of MY land. And I will stay and do whatever I can to have her replaced by someone pure and true and brave and honest, WORTHY to be the leader of the greatest nation in the history of the world. Assuming I can find someone like that of course - the hunt for one good man. John Wayne being deceased at the moment. BECAUSE AMERICA IS WORTH FIGHTING FOR!
I was in a military. And I was in a war. And I did come home. And I married and I had children and I became a millionaire. But you know, some guys I knew pretty well and actually grew to love as companions and teammates didn't make the trip. I guess I was lucky. Lucky me. They did not return home. THey did not marry. They had no children. No successful career. They are dead. The young. And the dead.
And in this broad land of many peoples, blessed with abundance and freedom and actually created to serve as an embarrassment and reminder to the world of how they OUGHT to live, we have one moment in time, where we set aside our different opinions and our different agendas, and our different criticisms, and our protests. And we sing a stupid song that was stolen from a British drinking club. And with the words of Francis Scott Key we note that no matter how beset we are by the bombs and rockets of our enemies, more POWERFUL enemies in that particular instance, no matter how outnumbered, and no matter how great the odds against us, that we will unite and we will prevail and we will stand up and endure AS the land of the FREE and the home of the BRAVE. And that we, ALL OF US, would fight and die to preserve that. And that we stand and recognize and revere those who have already done so.
And no matter HOW BADLY the celebrity du jour, or the team owners niece, mangles that impossible to sing song, at the end we all stand and cheer like mad as if they had sung it very very well.
And how am I to react if a young person, who has grown up in that land, and whom we gathered together our resources to pay for his College education via a scholarship, which then led to his being drafted by the National Football League and eventually a $30 million dollar contract to PLAY FREAKING FOOTBALL ON TV ON SUNDAY, which is not precisely shoveling gravel for a living, wants to INTERRUPT that moment of almost prayerful observance with some kind of LOOK AT ME - I'VE GOT AN ISSUE HERE ALL ABOUT ME THAT I WANT PEOPLE TO PAY ATTENTION TO ME" shit. All about ME. And he is going to actually use the PRIVILEGED status and stage of the event to make this statement - during this national anthem.
They apparently DO lack a father figure and are unawares of their desperate need for a public spanking. They are ignorant, stupid children of unfathomable selfishness who truly believe the sun rises and sets in their own assholes. And most of all they are apparently TOTALLY UNAWARE of the statement they really ARE making. Oblivious to it. For those of them who DO have fathers, my heart goes out to you - the fathers. Your humiliation is heart rending, but I would say you should have done a better job of backhanding the little bastard when it was yours to do.
I do not think I am alone in my feelings for the land of my people and this shared moment of observance of common cause. And note that I do not advocate the following prediction. The coaches and the NFL leadership have abdicated their leadership role and all common sense in the usual cowardly nod to political correctness and thereby are simply going to have to suffer the consequences. I would predict that should the entire Miami Dolphins team and the entire Seattle Seahawks team put the finger to the National Anthem Sunday in the manner they plan, that the seats will empty onto the field in the most awful melee ever witnessed on live television. There will be hundreds of injuries and potentially the end of American football as we know it. And the crowd will exercise THEIR freedom of speech in a way that will not please anyone in the end. Yes, the players have the RIGHT to express themselves. That does not mean it is appropriate or that anyone else has to put up with it.
And for the football players to all squeal like little girls for the police to help and protect them from the crowds isn't going to go over very well either.
Pray for our Land. Pray for our People.
Jack Rickard
