Religion in America

The decline of support for religion is alarming. Ask yourselves, "What hope do we have in this failing world, without the hope and help of God?" I can imagine none, and that is disheartening when you look around at commercial society. That leaves a heavy burden on our school teachers. Where, afterall, does our code of ethics, morals and behavior come? Without the guidance of a Supreme Being, someone that can lead by example and show altruistic love, where would the world be? We are in the wake of extremist terror, and that is only the workings of evil. The more you walk out of the path of God, the easier it is for evil to walk in. That is a difficult lesson to learn. It is easy to surmise why Americans are skeptical. So many Catholic priests grossly misuse their power for personal immediate gratification. How attrocious is that? Jim Baker seduces his secretary and is "dethroned" from his pulpit in humiliation from a sex scandal. An acting American president is impeached for immoral behavior in the White House. Episcopaleans are voting to ordane openly homosexual bishops. It seems the very fabric of religious practise is unraveling at the seams. Lawmakers are working harder and harder to seperate church and state, not allowing the ten commandments to be displayed in courtrooms and other public places. This is not really an America that seems that appealing anymore. What do we stand for as a human race? Money, power, sales. I'm not sure when I watch TV or read newspapers. There are so few stories reporting good acts anymore. When you wake up everyday, you have to look somewhere to find your inspiration, and I don't think it is asking too much to expect some of that to come from our modern society and the media. The media in fact has transformed itself from an entity of real journalism into a "dog and pony show." As I listen respectfully to the radio and television newscasters, I can only think, "Where did these professionals learn the craft of speech?" No one speaks anything that remotely resembles the King's English, proper English with a normal conversational flow. It is more like the more distorted your speech is, the worse your foreigh accent, the more you slur your words, the more you mechanically destroy the natural flow of human language, the better chance you have of being employed on a news cast. How about a few refresher speech classes? Try a poetry reading or two. Go to an acting class. Read some Shakespeare. Cartoons shouldn't be broadcasting the news, and the more I see happy faces telling us of more death and violence in Iraq, the more I wonder if anyone really understands the natural state of civilization. History tells you what is to come. European orchestral music, opera, monodrama, cantata, oratorio, and ballet all contain history. With a little attention to the arts, the world can remarkably become a more enlightened place. John F. Kennedy bolstered the arts in his short administration. Bill Clinton at least expressed interest in cinema and music. What does our current president show interest in? I'm not sure. What did he do in college or in high school? Play in the band? Act in a school play? Play chess? The examples of the stratification of social class can be seen no more clearly than in the American South. It seems there were plantation owners and slaves. Where is our middle class? What are the occupations of the middle class? Does the possession of money demand respect for some reason? "Fetch me a mint julip or play that there piano for me." Education is power. The more education you have the more powerful you become, because you can see through the guises of modern day corporate America. The ring tones, the camera phones, the iPods... Not that there is anything wrong with a little pop culture, but it doesn't take the place of an infrastructure built around religion and the worshipping of God. Think back to the energy crisis of the l970's. Gas lines. The government was smart enough to lower speed limits to 55 mph. Car manufacturers began building economy cars. Conservation because necessary for our very existance. I have watched careless, selfish Americans buy SUV after SUV for over a decade. Gas guzzling tanks turning our once calm roadways into avenues of road rage. Harley Davidsons with NO MUFFLERS, rattling away are turning our civilization into an arena of Mad Max and Thunderdome. Is this what the evolution of culture in the US has come to? Vancouver has electric trollies, not noisy diesel buses. It is quiet in their city. It is noisy in the US. What will the threshold be when Americans can no longer afford gasoline? Will this every happen? Are we headed for another Great Depression, a Coup, a meltdown of government? The longer we are out policing the rest of the world, contributing our time and effort to other countries, the more we neglect our own culture and quality of life. If I hear President Bush one more time say how important it is to spread democracy in the rest of the world, the more I want to ask him to step down, take his Vice President and become the President of Iraq. Leave America to someone that considers the Middle Class, the working class poor, and the homeless. You don't have to be a bleeding heart liberal to care for another social class other than your own. Only a small percentage of Americans play golf, belong to Country Clubs, have Debutante Balls, and live a life of liesure. In fact in 42 years of life in the US, I have yet to work a job that would afford me 1/10 of the lifestyle that my parents had. Woe is a country that wants you to see our Baber Boomers die and leave some jobs for the youth of America. Fuck WalMart.