"AMERICA"
So, let us examine this Universally Acclaimed Truth - America is uniquely benevolent (not nearly perfect) but, in the great affairs of nations, always the leading empowerment of human rights, peace and individual prosperity:
"For we shall be a Shining City on a Hill." John Winthrop, 1630; Ronald Reagan, 1980;
"And for the support of this Declaration, ... we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor." Thomas Jefferson, and 56 other Signers, July 4, 1776;
"A New Nation conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that All Men are
Created Equal. We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that
this Nation, under God, shall have a new birth of Freedom." Abraham Lincoln, 1863;
Regrettably, this universal acclimation has one notable exception - "I believe in American Exceptionalism just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British Exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek Exceptionalism." Barry Hussein Obama (full given name by parents). By universal consensus, the most recent contribution by the nation of Greece to the advancement of the human condition was prior to 332 B.C. when its last real leader died at 32 years of age.
For me, I will keep counsel instead with Jefferson/Lincoln/Winthrop:
America is and always shall be the The One Shining City, a Beacon of Light
to the whole World, having malice toward none and charity for all, so
we shall as one unique people strive on to finish the work we do to
achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and w/.
all nations. May it ever be true, because all peoples strive to be embraced
by the shining light of liberty and justice that is uniquely American.
Land of the Free, Home of the Punctual.
ReplyDeleteWhile I often find points to ponder or, as we like to say, "Things that make you go 'hmmm'" in the KAO Blog, I have to take exception to a recent imposition of an arbitrary timeline by same said blogger.
Work-Life Balance...we've all heard it said, but what does it really mean? Is it some buzz-word we throw out at meetings in order to avoid working overtime? Is it an HR catchphrase used to generate another series of PowerPoint presentations? Is it a myth? Personally for me, it's a BlackBerry profile (for the novice a profile is a collection of settings controlling what messages or information is presented to the user, what alerts are provided, ringtones, etc). A bit of background; I have a corporate-provided smart phone...to which is beamed email (from three accounts), text messages, voice messages and the entire internet. One would think that this permanent connectivity is a 21st century blessing...the world literally at your fingertips. Not so.
The ability to constantly keep tabs on everything you are involved in, personally and professionally, is a human-interaction viral boat anchor screaming to be chained around your neck (ref: CrackBerry). I chose to avoid said anchor and have created a profile on my device that I set when not at work. It provides me with only the bare minimum for family contact in these heady days of the new millenium: The phone rings when someone calls and Jan says "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha" when I received a text message. other than that the anchor stays blissfully silent.
Why this long explanation of personal electronic mise en place? Well, apparently I missed a deadline. A dealine that was delivered to my corporate email account over a long holiday weekend. Because of my peculiar penchant for direct human contact I have been virtually exiled....cast out...repelled at the wall. The upper echelon of blog commenters...the Valhalla of the read-and-grumble... Elite Status, has been denied me.
Will I apologize? Nay. Will I beg for an extension? I think not. Will I hope to arouse in the other readers of this blog a fever? A fever who's only prescription is more cowbell? Well, not really...but maybe, just maybe one of you out there has been impacted by something like this..and maybe, just maybe I have brought a small bit of solace to that person. We are not alone.
Besides.... I don't think elite status is all it's cracked up to be anyway.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteTest post. Where did my comment go?
ReplyDeleteTest 2
ReplyDeleteTest 3
ReplyDeleteIt was AWESOME
ReplyDeleteIt's a conspiracy.... that's it. The Man couldn't take the truth. I'll have to be more careful...more cryptic in my comments. Every 14th letter....something like that.
ReplyDeleteHmmm... "Test 3" showed up that time. Maybe I'll keep posting and my original post will show up.
ReplyDeleteWell, a majority of my comments, both "Test" and actual have not appeared. So I'll try to regroup and try again.
ReplyDeleteIn a nutshell my eloquent and witty retort said something to the effect of..."Wow, you write the best blogs ever".
In truth I must say that when I was first invited to peruse this literary junket I was not looking forward to it. I mean, sheeeesh, the guy's a lawyer...I figured his views on politics and the working world in general would not align very well with my own. Now, don't get me wrong, I think there is a great value in reading points of view different from one's own...but it would make the inevitable Thanksgiving conversation a little awkward.
Imagine my surprise when, after ingesting several "Just sayin'"'s I actually looked froward to the next installment. I'm not a big basketball fan (despite my current geographical location) so the occasional Davidson rant doesn't really appeal to me, but I take the chaff with the wheat.
So...in all honesty, I did forward the blog address to my children. I hope this not only adds to their worldly insight, but also serves to keep that humble blogger mindful of his language.
I hope this comment makes it...I can't go through this again...
Imagine my surprise when I checked the blog comments today and saw ALL OF THEM posted. Now I seem to be a bit of a stalker. Also, my initial comment seems a bit..shall we say, off point? I tried too hard. I really should let these things be more organic...just let it flow.
ReplyDeleteSo...I'll stop now. Until the nest blog post anyway. He's just sayin'