Barbarians At the Gate by Bratprince

America has me a bit worried lately. No, not because it appears that the golden rule of "helping your neighbor" health care issue is going up in flames. No, it isn't because our economy is in tatters or that we are fighting what appear to be two unwinable wars. It has nothing to do with the fact that Obama's popularity is dropping dangerously low and Republicans are almost certain to win back one or both of the legislative branch (this happened to Clinton and Bush so don't be surprised). It isn't even because humans like a virus are spreading and destroying every square inch of Planet Earth they can find.

What has me most concerned is that the U.S. citizenry seems to have lost all control of themselves. We have become a nation that should have grown up by now but it only appears we are going backwards.

I'm not saying this is the first time. The first Continental Congress of the 18th century had a pension for yelling at each other. I doubt either LBJ or Nixon were having any fun as the country erupted into chaos and demonstrations over Vietnam. Police had a pretty rough evening when they decided to raid a small little New York gay bar called The Stonewall Inn (the drag queens decided to fight back and began the gay rights movement). African Americans surely didn't enjoy the names they were called (and still are sometimes) as they began to integrate into schools and started riding at the front of the bus. I even remember that things got fairly loud when Clinton decided to lie to the American people about a certain young lady and the antics of the oval office.

Still, I'm having trouble remembering a louder or more aggressive era. Town hall meetings have erupted into horrible screaming matches where ordinary citizens cannot control themselves long enough to even let their elected official answer a question. Congressmen and Senators are being burned in effigy. The President was called a Nazi by Rush Limbaugh (by the way Rush, Nazi's hated black people. Hitler would not even watch Jessie Owens win his Olympic gold medal. Also, if Obama were really a Nazi it would be more than likely that he would send a squadron of goons to pick you up in the middle of the night and you would never be heard from again..that's the way the Nazi's did things). I find it most concerning that people are carrying loaded guns outside of where our President is speaking (thank you states for the brilliant idea of legally arming day to day citizens).

It is now almost 2010 and we have become no better as a country than when we started. We are still throwing tea off the side of the boat. From the beginning of this country there was a class system. People fell into different categories. The rich were the rich, the poor were the poor (there wasn't much of a middle class then). People behaved in a way appropriate to their station. I've read a lot about the era they called "the gilded age". People rich or poor actually seemed to have manners. The rich set the standard and the poor emulated that standard. In the "rich set" one little outburst; one tiny mistake in decorum and you were "socially banished to Siberia". I'm definitely not advocating that we have a "class system" again, but I suppose I'm nostalgic for an America I never knew. I long for a world of: calling cards, gentleman removing their hats for ladies and holding the door for strangers, where people don't paint on stop signs and wouldn't dream of throwing trash into someone else's yard. I miss handwritten letters and thank you notes. I miss taking a homemade plate of cookies to the new neighbors. I wish that people acted like Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn instead of Dick Cheney and Ann Coulter.

I'm tired of people yelling at each other. I despise the name calling and the lies people believe just because somebody on the radio or television told them so (the majority of the country no longer reads a newspaper).

I believe very strongly in freedom of speech. In this country I think you should be able to say anything you wish as long as it does not cause panic (fire in a theatre or something like that). Just please, as a nation..can't we say it a bit less loudly. Wouldn't it be nice if the words ladies and gentlemen actually meant something again?