Today I met up with Michael Dowdle to lay down some guitar tracks. Afterward I asked him what he thought about the song and we began a conversation about America and her struggles. He said that his biggest concern was for his children and grandchildren and what their America would look like. We talked about what changed America from the powerhouse that it used to be to the limping country it is now.
I wondered aloud how we could roll out tens of thousands of war machines to aid in winning World War I and World War II and yet now we can't even enforce the laws of our land or defend the borders of the country. He said that the generations of the great world wars had "conviction through affliction". I think Michael makes an interesting point with this rhyming phrase. The greatest generations had were children during the first world war and then teenagers through the great depression.
They had a very real, first-hand experience with adversity by first witnessing their parents' country suffer and make it through and then they themselves experienced the sting of Pearl Harbor. These struggles really brought our people together and united us in a way that nothing since has. The attacks on New York in 2001 brought us together for a while, but faded away, because the threat stayed in foreign lands. Michael thinks that it's going to take something bigger to unite us again and I agree.
We are so divided right now. We need unity more than ever. Family units have been destroyed by infidelity and a lack of the morality that held the families of yesteryear together. America has been overrun with "stuff". I grew up with a grandfather that kept everything and when stuff broke he didn't throw it away--he fixed it. This throw away tradition has led many of us to not truly appreciate the process that industry requires to produce goods. We take for granted and have nearly forgotten the hard work and focus an idea requires to go from the raw materials to a finished product.
By becoming a consuming nation, rather than a producing nation we don't have to wait for anything. We can just go buy it at the store without a thought for the blood, sweat and tears it took others to provide it for us. This includes food and services also, not just products. We must return to the fields of toil and the factories of industry, not to prove that we can work hard, but so we remember the production processes of what we eat, what we wear and what we use.
The American Song is the calling card to all Americans to stand up and get back to the basics. There is nothing wrong with enjoying the finer things in life that have made our lifestyles so convenient, comfortable and easy, but what if it all comes to a halt? What if we have some global scale catostrophes that disable communications, transportation, food production, clothing production, electricity, water, etc.? Are you prepared? Can we pull on our boots and survive? Will we be able to feed ourselves? Will we be able to keep ourselves warm in winter and cool in the summer? Will we be able to protect our wives and children? Will we be able to defend ourselves from a domestic or forgeign enemy? Will we be able to treat, cure, mend and heal our sick bodies? I don't want us to suffer some horrible, debilitating experience before we remember and humble ourselves. Isn't the power within us to come together before destruction is upon us?
Tomorrow I'm going to an endotontist to get a couple teeth retreated for root canals that I had done nearly 15 years ago. He has to go back in and treat dime-size infections that are at the root tips. He's using the latest technology in anesthesia, tools and technique. If our way of life were to fail, I can't imagine what I would do about these infections that are threatening to destroy bone in my upper jaw. We can't afford to lose the advances and progress that our civilization has made, because we're too lazy to care about the direction we're headed.
Michael Dowdle used a word to describe the attitudes that the newer generations have toward life. The word was, "apathy". If a person is apathetic, it means they have a lack of concern, enthusiam or interest. Does this not describe how many Americans act toward the issues facing The United States of America? There are so many preaching doom and destruction around every corner, but I hope we take a different path. I hope we start caring for our neighbors. I hope we start caring about our wives and our children. I hope we take a moment each day to remember our creator and humble ourselves to empower ourselves with the strength of His arm rather than the strength of our own.
The more Americans I share this song with, the more I realize that we share the same fears, concerns, problems and ideas on how to solve them. Sometimes I hesitate to write about God for fear of offending somebody, but when our nation is at stake, everybody seems to start caring less about offending and more about defending. Lets keep the faith and move forward with love in our hearts for our fellowman and a hatred toward all evil that seeks to destroy what we've built in the last two centuries. Let the song I wrote reignite our national pride and individual determination to make a difference in ourselves and the communities in which we live.
No comments:
Post a Comment