Well Traveled and Dim Sum (then some)

I especially do not consider myself well-traveled.  I have been fortunate in my meager life to accomplish some things which in all likelihood will go unnoticed for a very long time.  Judging from the Classic Era and music history, I will die a pauper in an unmarked grave.  My music will not be played for another century.  This seems to be the timeline of classical music in this world.  Even the heard classical composers of this era struggle to make ends meet.  Maybe I am wrong.  Maybe like Branford Marsalis and Joey Calderazzo, we find a little college gig and disappear.  The opera "Nixon in China" comes to mind, and it only is John Adams which has received some notoriety for his work.  The rest bubble up on classical radio program from time to time.  I assume they must have college teaching gigs across the country.  I don't really care.  I care that America is a staid country.  We are behind the rest of the world culturally.  Pundits and some of my acquaintances will say, "Eurotrash.  Socialist cess pools.  Are you crazy? Europe is a dismal pile of trash."  This is one friend in particular, probably the most musically enlightened of all the people I know.  I listen to him, and I understand his point.  Compared to living in a field, in a cardboard house, or in a tunnel beneath the ground, America may seem like heaven.  Freedom is what creates happiness, freedom from tyranny, ignorance, and greed.  We in America have all three sitting in our White House scorning us daily on the front page of our newspapers.  How could this happen?  How could God let this happen?  How could this humiliation be in our midst, our world, our lives now?  It is inexplicable, except when one examines American history.  Her path is littered with corpses.  During the Civil War hundreds of thousands of Americans, Yankees and Confederates, died defending their views.  Nothing has changed, except that our separation has become more disguised in recent decades.  The free flowing of money has much to do with it.  When people are able to work for a decent wage and live a modest life it seems America more is at peace with herself.  This has changed.  To sound like a broken Victrola, the top one percent ..... blah, blah, blah.  Stagnant wages for thirty years.  Blah, blah, blah.  Trump in the White House is why racism has percolated to the surface recently.  When one thinks of the Obama presidency, there are pros and cons on whether racism improved in America.  Trump's intent is and always has been to incite violence in America.  He does not care about the American people.  Why would he even run for President?  It is because it was a popularity contest supporting Trump's vanity.  He is a fighter, and with his amassed fortune and therefore immunity from prosecution, it allows him to stir things up.  That is all he is doing, but somehow we let him into our White House.  The people who voted for Trump are to blame for this, and they are the people responsible for our Conditions of America as we speak.  These people are the reason why we are faced with this egregious situation during our lifetimes.  They are the same as Trump.  There it is.  The Civil War never has been resolved, Jesse James was the ultimate terrorist, a true American guerilla fighter, and the divide of those living in America never has been clearer.  Maybe I am railing against Trump's peeps inadvertently.  Maybe the unrest I feel with America is being surrounded by Trump supporters.  It is nothing new.  Once it was the fight of Democrats verses Republicans.  Then like heterosexuality, the line of demarcation was blurred.  Are you a man or a woman?  The fight becomes more difficult, when the playing field purposely is tilted.  Now we no longer can define our warring populace as left or right.  Traditional definitions of American social philosophy have been dissipated.  Rest assured we all are surrounded by our enemies.  This also is nothing new.  Keep your loved ones close and your enemies closer.  This takes a lot of energy, and America must be reaching a time when fighting no longer is in vogue.  We have been at war in Afghanistan for sixteen years.  The media says it is the longest war .... blah, blah, blah.  If you asked American citizens why we are war in Afghanistan, who could say why?  I can't.  I can say that Secretary Tillerson is intelligent enough to understand that in the mountains of Afghanistan are a trillion dollars worth of natural resources.  Still to this day the Bush family has been unable to get the oil in Iraq.  Still to this day we are in Afghanistan because of them.  We destroyed a country, created ISIS, and are depleting a non-existent GNP seeking wealth for the American oligarchy.  My intent with this blog entry was not to talk about politics.  It was to explain how America culturally is behind the rest of the world.  Wealth does not create or actualize culture.  Poor countries out of dire necessity may be more culturally advanced then America.  The ironic and infuriating thing is America's cornerstone cultural achievements have been shelved.  The things which built America, made us great, and put us ahead of the world now have been deemed unimportant.  What the fuck?  How can anyone qualify this event?  American jazz, one of the few pure American art forms, is enjoyed by one percent of the population.  That should tell you something about who is supporting Trump.  Bluegrass music, another pure American art form, is invisible.  Rock 'n' Roll, Elvis Presley, and a success-laden generation of bobby sockers have become extinct.  By the choice of what must be millennials, most of America's history is being dismantled in lieu of flying or self-driving cars, trips to Mars, or smart phones.  Big Brother.  I resisted the smart phone revolution.  I realized early that miniature microwave transmitters have no place in the hands of children much less adults.  It was a bad idea, and wireless technology with be the demise of the world.  Those who can grow a tomato, plant a field, sew a dress, or dig a well will remain.  I don't know if it will get to that.  God is supposed to return to Earth, and those who have accepted Christ will be embraced by Him and taken to a new parallel planet, where they will begin anew.  The rest will duke it out in purgatory, or rather an earth ravaged by fire and brimstone.  This scenario could be a number of things.  Nuclear war.  An asteroid.  Volcanoes.  The point is no one would want to have to endure during this cataclysmic time.  American militias, groups which never have disappeared, still are preparing for a fight of some kind.  They should be acknowledged and applauded.  If faced with the decision of whether I will be murdered by a knife-wielding terrorist or whether I will pick up a weapon and defend myself, simply I will pick up a weapon.  As Americans we have done this the entire longevity of the life of our nation.  It is part of our core.  One must defend themselves against evil, and yet this principle has become foreign to this generation.  Like most everything, they whine because life has not continued to be made easy for them.  They are having to grow up.  Maybe this is why Trump is in the White House.  When a Grand Master of the KKK becomes President of the United States, is financially self-sufficient, and seems to be demented.....   Well we have had it before, and it ain't easy.