Something Of Value

In the year of the fall of 1955 to 1956 I lived in New York City, all the way across the continent from my home town in Southern California, before I had to return home to go into the Army.  There was a Draft then, left over from the Korean War - excuse me; the Korean Police Action; so called for reasons that I didn't know of at the time, which turned out to have something to do with our responsibilities as a member of the UN - and every able-bodied young man who was not in school or responsible for a family spent two years of duty in an arm of the service of his choice.  Mine turned out to be in the Army.  As a c.o..  That stands for conscientious objector, for those who aren't familiar with the term.  Which had to do with why I was in Manhattan for that year.  But to continue.1

I would spend my weekend summer days mostly in Central Park, in scenes reminiscent, and even redolent, of a French Impressionist painting, say, George Seurat's 'A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte'.  Sometimes I would take the subway up to the north end of the metropolis, to a park whose name I have forgotten (and can't locate right now), for open-air concerts there.  Most enjoyable, to have these pieces of color in one's life, in both small town and big city America.  

I was reminded of all this today, while having gone down to my local public park in the late afternoon to take in a band concert.  The Long Beach Municipal Band has been putting on such concerts in the parks around town for years, even back to my growing-up days in this small town; and I took them in even then.2  In part, I am sure, to do with my love of band music, from my days in junior high school, first in the school band - I played the clarinet - and then in its orchestra.  But also because I was simply drawn to this form of community activity.  It seemed so - comfortable, somehow.  Such an enjoyable aspect of life in small-town America.

And I was particularly drawn in today's concert into nostalgia by a march by John Philip Sousa.  Quintessentially Americana.  Which brought up all sorts of Americana for me, from my childhood.

All the American songs we learned in Second grade, and that I later learned to play on my clarinet.  My Country, 'Tis Of Thee.  Columbia, The Gem Of The Ocean.  God Bless America...

...And the mail I get.  One recently (two, actually.  I go by more than one name) from the Operation Finally Home people, with a United States flag in it, and the statement on the envelope: 'A Wounded Veteran Needs You'.  And the books on my bookshelves; including both 'the Federalist Papers' and 'The Anti-Federalist Papers,' and 'Miracle at Philadelphia;' and my dog-eared copy of The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution....But back to my musings, on a hot summer day, in Southern California.  In a park where mostly Hispanics play their interminable games of soccer; in their version of The Endless Summer......      

And it all got me to thinking: Is this all going to end??

First of all: Because of the multiculturalism that is being foisted on America by TPTB, in their attempts to break down America - as they are attempting to do with the basically monocultural states of Europe, like Sweden - into balkanized bits; the easier to swallow it, my dears.  And digest it into being a mere part of a region of their dark-side NewWorld Order.  'They': these vipers in charge of the world these dark days who see, and know, only Power and Money.  Who I am here to help stop in their tracks, and see them off the field of battle.  For a New World to be ushered in, alright.  Just not their pale-copy, reverse-image one

of the real thing.

But does that mean that such enjoyable delicacies like small-town band concerts, and John Phillips Sousa marches, and corn on the cob on the Fourth of July holidays, are to go by the wayside too???

Perhaps.  To make way for all sorts of new cultural aspects, of the New Age.

But let's be careful, not to give up the old, before there is something of at least equal value to replace it with.

--

footnotes:

1 Just to say here that I went there to do research in their Main Public Library; figuring that that must be 'the largest public library in the Western world'.  I was dead serious about finding out what life was all about.  No more questions.  No more bullshit.

2  They started in a band shell on The Pike, an amusement park on the beach.   I was here for its heyday - just taking in the scene mostly, on weekend days in the sun; and especially enjoying the sno-cones - before it fell victim to the newfangled form of amusement: TV.  There are pieces of it left to this day, as a tattered reminder of days gone by.  The Ferris wheel is still there; though rather forlornly so.  The roller coaster, of course - a major skyline image of the time, and in one's mind's eye - has long since generated its last thrill.  

--

I Claim This Country

I claim this country
For God.
               Which means
           for Us
As well.  And I
       will wring
Every last ounce
Of corruption
                    out
            of it.
            For it
To be fitting
                 for
   the honor.

I can embody
Limitless Love
     but I AM
Limitless Truth
       as well.

            Heed
My call.  And
My warning.
               To all
Who would think
          to have
  their way with
    My country:

      It is not
      for sale.

--

And speaking of MY country being taken over; an example:

from thecommonsenseshow.com: ’The Russians Have Bombed an [sic] US Air Base on the Syrian Border Reports the Wall Street Journal’ - Dave Hodges  - July 25/6

…

• RickE. July 26, 2016 at 9:57 am 
• 
  We should NOT be in Syria to begin with! We are trespassing there, as it is a recognized sovereign country with rights just like us! We do not have permission to even be there, let alone set up a military base or installation.
• We cannot continue to simply do what we please to whatever foreign country we choose.
• We do not have the moral or legal right to interfere in other countries’ affairs unless asked to do so by that country!
• 
  Simply stating that we are ‘exceptional’ does NOT give us the right to enter and occupy a foreign country. PERIOD
  
  
• 
  Stan July 27, 2016 at 1:08 am
  (Your comment is awaiting moderation.)
•  
• RickE: Amen. The only reason that we are in there is because TPTB want us to be there, to help bring down the Assad government, because they want that space. The U.S. needs to throw off the vermin who are running our foreign policy – shaders of the NeoCons under the Bush administrations – and get on the moral side of things.
• 
  I am angry about what is happening in and to MY country. The vermin need to hear, loud and clear: Hands. Off.
• 
  

—

The same as our being on the wrong side in Turkey.  Erdogan is a dangerous man.  The excuse - that we destroyed the coup attempt there - is apparently involving our responsibilities with NATO.  If that is true, then we need to get out of NATO; because that means it has fallen into the hands of the vermin. 

If it hasn’t always been.