SOMEONE STOLE MY AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE

As a child, growing up meant having the freedom to learn, to explore, and to find out what life was all about. The good thing about being an American was that we were safe and secure no matter where we were. People left their doors and windows open to let in the fresh air; they parked their cars in the driveway, usually with the windows down and the keys in the ignition. We either walked to school, or walked a good distance to the bus stop, and we did it without fear.

The virtues and ways of life as depicted on radio and television shows were somewhat realistic. You didn’t need to worry about what the kids were watching or listening to because it was against the law for broadcasters to cuss, swear, tell dirty jokes, or incite violence. Jack Parr got fired from broadcasting because he told the famous “water closet” joke. Movies were as squeaky clean as could be; you didn’t need a rating system.

Gas was 19 cents a gallon and they pumped it for you, checked your tires and washed your windows. Weekends meant short family trips to picnics and barbeques. Evenings were for watching television and arguing over who had to get up and turn the channel, cuddling up with good books by the fireplace or playing chess, canasta or Parcheesi.

There was no stress. “Being on medication” meant that the doc had told you to start taking Anacin to keep your arthritic pains at bay. Depression was solved with a swift kick in the ass, and hyperactive children were controlled with a belt or a hairbrush. As barbaric as life was in those days, we all matured with sound values and good judgment.

These days, of course, we are constantly in fear. We lock our windows and doors day or night and add the protection of burglar alarms. We roll up the windows and lock our cars even when we are in them and driving. We don’t even think about letting out children walk to school and most school districts bring their buses almost to your front door. Police are in the schools because kids don’t take guns to school so they can go rabbit hunting on the way home; they take guns to school to shoot teachers and other students with.

Swearing and cussing and groin grinding are accepted with a yawn, both on television and in the movies. Even racial slurs seem to go virtually unpunished, ala Howard K. Stern. You can even get away with murder, (O.J. Simpson). Children are not safe while playing in their own yards.

Gas is pushing $5.00 a gallon and not only do you have to pump it yourself, you have to wash your own windows, check your own tires, and give a pleasant smile to the clerk when you empty your wallet. Weekends are at the mall, barbeques are 30-minute events in the back yard, and evenings are for every one to spend alone in their own room watching their own tube or surfing the Internet. If you know what chess is, you’re a geek. Of course, no one has ever heard of canasta or Parcheesi, but there IS solitaire on computer!

Stress, anxiety, depression, sleeping disorders, hyperactivity…. A whole gamut of illnesses is treated with a plethora of drugs and medications. If we weven so much as dare to look at our children cross-eyed, we go to jail. Our prisons are overflowing and we’re afraid to fly an American flag on our porch on the 4^th of July because we don’t want to be labeled as a “patriotic fanatic.”

The good days are gone forever. Our children will never see them, nor will their children.

Someone stole my American way of life. Who is to blame?