Gun Grabbers

I know that I already posted for the A to Z today.  You can read that here.

However, I haven't posted anything on Freedom and Guns in a long time.  This one will hit you where you live.  It is only a few minutes long.  It is testimony from someone who lived through an extermination in Cuba due to the guns being taken from the people.  He says, "You don't know what freedom is because you've never lost it."  Sometimes you have to lose something to understand it's value.  I really hope that we don't need to lose our Freedom in order to appreciate it.  I don't want to be telling the younger generation that we used to live in a country that was free.  Now we live in a Horror Show.

All of the "F" Words

These last few weeks have given us time to reflect on many things including Christmas, our plans for the New Year (goals, resolutions, or, if you are like me your word for the year), and maybe just some general refocusing. And there has been a lot of time to do all of this because there have been so few distractions for most of us (unless you, too, just moved into a new home and are still unpacking). Family has come and gone. Probably. If they are still here then you have a lot of family or they stay a LONG time. You are probably back to work. You may have even scratched a good many items off that Honey-Do List. And if you live alone, that list is your own list. Whatevs.

What I am getting at is that during this time life comes to a halt, changes, we get a lot of stuff done, and then in a couple of weeks, it all changes again. What happens? Our regularly televised programming comes back. Yep. Our favorite shows come back from the mid-season hiatus they took and all that free time dries right up. And that leads me to the show that has me trolling youtube looking for a fix every so often, because I just CAN'T WAIT until it comes back. J.J. Abrams and Eric Kripke joined forces to roll out the tour de force known as Revolution. It is the first show I have watched on NBC in forever. It would take an Abrams or Kripke production to bring me back. And, oh, what a show. If you are not watching that this blockbuster on Monday nights at 10pm, you are missing out.

I have posted the trailer for this show before, though it was a while ago, and couched in a HERE'S TO YOU posting.  So, I am going to post it again for anyone who missed it, or just didn't watch it.  That way you are up to speed for this post.




Okay, wasn't that amazing?  It gives you a pretty good idea where this show is going.  Yeah, it is about a time when the lights have gone off, there is no electricity, or batteries, or power of any kind.  A world where there is no USA anymore.  The government fell, militias rose.  Within that scope a writer gets to tell all kinds of stories.  Of course we want to know HOW it happened.  And, these writers will get there.  And HOW to fix it.  I imagine that they will get there, too.

But, like all Abrams/Kripke productions, at the heart of the story is CORE stuff.  Family.  Freedom.  Friendship.  Fighting.  Forgiveness.  It's all the "F" words.

Let's start with family.  That is at the heart of the show.  The Matheson Family.  Charlotte "Charlie" feels responsible for her younger brother, Danny.  She seeks out the aid of her uncle Miles; she hasn't seen him since she was a child.  These two have to work together.  When you start out as just family by blood but discover that you are family by choice and love, that becomes powerful.  Family.  How far would you go to save yours?



Without spoiling anything (I don't think), let's move on to friendship.  This element is explored through various paths.  Several people picked up the quest to help Charlie find Miles.  They were all merely friends.  Not family.  Keep in mind, this was a dangerous quest.  That asks a lot of a friend.  None of these people were really equipped for a war, either.  Then you have other people getting caught up in this mess, thinking they are on the "right" side, only to discover that maybe they aren't.  It really plays hell with your psyche to find out that maybe you were fighting on the "wrong" side of what amounts to a war for years.

And then there is the Friendship that started it all.  Miles and Monroe.  Best friends since children.  They only started the Militia to save people.  Irony there.  People were dying with the blackout.   Someone had to "step up."  The thing is that "Power corrupts.  Absolute power corrupts absolutely."  Yeah.  That sucks.  What happens when you realize that your best friend has become the Dark Side Incarnate?  And you are his Commander-In-Chief and passed on everything you know about how to kill people?  And, for the record, that is what you do best.  So, you have the best trained killing militia ever.  ::You have seriously screwed the pooch::  I would have used another one of those infamous "F" words, because it definitely applies, but I am really trying to clean up my language for the New Year.

What we have here is one of the most Intriguing Friendships of the Show.  We have had glimpses into how it began, where is has been, and where it is going.  Miles and Monroe:  Friendship gone seriously sideways.  Now this hurts.



I feel certain that there will be a lot more Fighting to come based upon how the writers left it.  There are also plenty of opportunities for some Forgiveness and Renewed Friendships.  Family was reunited and I think we might see some Family torn apart.  If Freedom is to be had, it will have to be Fought For, because that is simply where they are.  What I think we will see at the end of this season is the main characters find a Foundation.  They will know, without a doubt, what and who is worth Fighting For and that will make everything easier.  Friendship.  Family.  Freedom. 

IT DOESN'T HURT LESS THE NEXT TIME AROUND

It's been one of those kind of days. You know what kind of day I am talking about. To post or not to post. I have been back and forth on this for the last two hours. In the meantime, I have been scrolling youtube. Yeah, that is what I do when I can't make up mind.

This place ~ blogland ~ is anonymous and still so intimate. We know each other in ways that our friends that we bump into on the street, and maybe have occasional lunches with, do not. That is just hard to process sometimes. I have conversations with my mother about my various blog friends and she can't keep you folks straight. Well, it's hard for her, because she isn't doing the blog reading, and she doesn't have a face to put with the story. I follow more blogs and there are more stories to tell. She is thoroughly confused now. It has gotten to the point that I have stopped sharing with her because we are starting to sound like The Odd Couple. I have enough stress. And, so does she.


I read a blog today that emotionally kicked me back in time to a blog I read not so long ago from another blog friend. When I read that blog, I read a comment left by another one of my blog friends that threw me for a loop. They both traveled an emotional rollercoaster for a while. Then, another blog friend wrote about cleaning out chicken coops. Painful stuff. Eventually, it led to a really good thing. Healing. Sharing. Freedom.

I accept that no one gets through this life unscathed. I do believe I blogged about that here. I think that there is a Grand Design and I accept that. It is just that right now ~ in this moment ~ I am having a tough time reconciling all of the damage. Rationally, I know that people who survive the most crap and come out stronger, healthier, and with their humanity intact have valuable gifts to offer. There are so many people in need of those gifts.

The first time I went round with this I dedicated the video Fighter on a HERE'S TO YOU THURSDAY post. Well, Thursday seems very far away right now. I have listened to Fighter so many times that I am ready to throw something. No offense. I have found it is possible to actually get tired of a song if you listen to it enough times. I thought about the Dark Angel version and one of the Lost versions. The thing is this: usually when I find the right video it speaks to me. I bet that sounded really crazy. So many of you have commented about how surprised you were that I picked a specific video for you. How did I know that you liked that TV show? How did I know that was your favorite song? The answer: I didn't. I just had a feeling. When I found the footage, it spoke to me. That is sometimes why it takes so long.

So, no Fighter. Yeah, that means I listened to that song for almost two hours for no good reason. It hurts me way more than it hurts you. Trust me. This is for my blogwriting friend from today. It is also for my blogwriting friends who have already opened up their hearts and poured out their pain.

Don't forget to turn off my music player at the bottom of the page.




And this is a really fabulous final destination for everyone. The song is from the same CD. It is one of my favorites (though it never got radio play). For you non-TV watchers, this is a Lois and Clark video.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH TO THE MAX

Last night while I was tossing and turning (and not sleeping), I pondered, among other things, what to write for today's post. I like being free to write whatever I want. However, today is the 4th of July and I really felt like I should stick to the theme of the day. Ironically, that is freedom.

History never was my best subject in school. Check that. I was an "A" student. I was excellent at banking things in my short-term memory, and spitting them out at test time. So, I could memorize dates and names and battles won and lost. I could then regurgitate that information for a test and get the "A" grade. However, the history would have meant more to me had it felt personal. For instance, I read the book RIDE THE WIND by Lucia St. Clair Robson and it changed me. It changed the way I saw the Comanche Indian tribe and it made me lose respect for several Presidents of this country, starting with Andrew Jackson. There was not a single peace treaty that was made with the Native American tribes that was ever honored, and it was not the Native Americans who did the the dishonoring. These Presidents do not make me proud to be an American. Okay, I didn't realize that this was where I was going with this today.

I thought that where I was going when I started that last paragraph was that it would have been helpful to have been assigned some outside reading in history class. A well written historical fiction novel that makes the story come alive, and still gets the history right, makes it real. Barring that, a well-done movie would accomplish the same goal. The idea is to make the student remember the events (if not the exact date), know why they happened, and understand the feeling behind what was going on at the time. I don't believe that a text book does the job. It's pretty dry reading.

As a person who likes to read historical fiction, I think I have learned more out of school than in. I think that is sad. I know a lot of people who don't read at all. I have learned some things from movies. It may not be completely accurate, but it's close, and I understand the feeling that motivated the events now, whereas I didn't before. That is compelling.

My problem is the history that is being made right now. I think that there are three big problems. 1) People who talk political (as in TV news and/or radio news) talk in political speak, which is a language that the average person does not understand. I hate to say this, but you need to dumb it down for the average person to get what you are saying. Honestly, I think that they talk this way half the time because they don't know what they are talking about, and if they use enough eight syllable words they will sound smart, and no one will be able to follow.

2) If you are the host of a talk show and you have a guest and/or caller on the line, let them finish their sentence or thought BEFORE you interrupt them. First of all, interrupting people is just RUDE. And, second of all you asked to to have them on your show or to have them call. You are interrupting them to point out how stupid and/or wrong they are. That is just MEAN. If you want your show to be hours of you talking and telling the listening audience how right you are, then just do that. Don't have guests and don't' take calls. As it is, you just sound like an arrogant a**hole. I don't care which side you're on, the right or the left. You're just a jerk.

3) If you really want to educate people, someone should have a show that alternates hosts. Someone on the left one day. Someone on the right the next. And each of those people should talk about pertinent topics in language that a seventh grader taking civics can follow. Why? Because seventh graders need to write reports for class. If the kid can follow it, his/her parents probably can, too. You will be doing a service for the whole country. People who understand the topics are more likely to get out there and vote. What a concept... we might actually have educated voters at the polls instead of people just voting a straight Democratic or Republican ticket because they don't understand the issues and their candidates take on them.

We live in a free country. Yes, this is true. We also live in a country that is bursting at the seams with controversy. Can you feel it? I hear about it every day in my house. My step-dad walks around muttering all day long. Too much federal government spending. The deficit is out of control. Too much federal government is what caused the southern states to secede from the Union. In other words, his pot runneth over. And his pot isn't the only one.



Having watched the television series Jericho, I've decided that should the day ever come that states start seceding and declaring themselves to be separate Republics (or their own countries), or if it even looks like that is going to happen, that is the time to move to Texas, people. You heard me... Texas. It has plenty of natural resources. It is large. And you can easily cross the border into Mexico. So, if Civil War breaks out Mexico could have its own illegal immigration problem. I think that is kind of ironic. Once again, I didn't see this blog going here. I am full of surprises.