| July 16, 2009 Blargh |
Because that is my way. That is my personality. That is who I am. I am not a forceful person. I don’t feel the need to disturb those around me for the sake of attention. I am content to create for myself. I derive a pleasure out of creating something that I find pleasing to the senses.
Of course now I have a full time job, I have money. I have graduated college and I don’t find myself creating like I used to. It’s not because of time really. I guess the college lifestyle was much more conducive to creating small patches of artwork. An hour between classes and it was easy to whip out a picture and get a little done here, a little done there. When the wee hours of the morning came and I had finished what I had to get done at school I could always scan a page, color it on the computer, listen to music, and that is how I obtained my peace.
But I don’t create like I used to. Not because of time constraints. A small part is because now I can afford all the things that I couldn’t, and it is much easer to play video games than it is to draw for hours only to look at it the next day and realize it was all crap. But it’s more than that. I don’t create, because I don’t have the drive.
My life was ugly in college. The people were ugly, the city was ugly, the lifestyle was ugly, I felt ugly, I was extremely discontent. Now, I find myself, dare I say, happy?
My life always lacked beauty, and so I felt the need to create it. But now, my life is full of beauty. I am getting married in October, to a girl a thousand times more beautiful than I thought I could ever win over, and a million times more beautiful than I could ever deserve. My life is full of beauty. And so I lack the desire to create, but I think it’s more than a fair trade!
But, unfortunately, I have started watching THE NEWS. I am keeping track of CURRENT EVENTS, and I got to tell you, I don’t like what I see.
I remember not long after 9/11/2001, I went to a scholarship competition at a private college. At the end of it, we were supposed to write an essay, and this essay plus our SAT scores an interview and a bunch of other crap was used to determine what level of scholarship we received. I don’t remember exactly what the essay question was, but I remember what I wrote about.
I wrote about how even though we were all terrified after the atrocities of 9/11, we should not let this be an excuse to inflate government. At school, we had just finished studying Henry David Thoreau, and his piece, “Civil Disobedience,” and I was moved by a quote from that document.
I included this quote in my essay. Now, it wasn’t until after I finished writing this that I was informed that the vast majority of higher learning establishments are egregiously liberal. So, needless to say, I didn’t get the highest level scholarship, and I ended up going to a different college altogether. The Georgia Tech application requested an essay about what is my most precious possession. Interestingly enough, I chose to write about my artwork.
But as I sit here seven or eight years or so later, I can’t help but reflect on how insightful that was. Since then, the federal government has expanded and is continuing to expand to levels that send shivers down my spine. And the sad thing is that nobody in Washington is opposing it.
The democrats are attempting to expand the federal government to have authority over the automobile industry, the energy industry, healthcare. And the republicans, they are working to expand the government in all the same directions, just on a slightly smaller scale!
The fundamental problem is that the government sees itself as the solution. Nobody seems to remember that this country was founded on the premise, that the government is the PROBLEM.
It’s genius really. The ones who want to push for government expansion simply must decry “Look! Look at these problems!! Look at global warming!! Look at healthcare!! The government must DO SOMETHING!!”
Predictably, the democrats will push in a direction of expanded government to solve these “problems.” Then, if any conservative argues against the expansion they are branded as callous, hateful, racist, and the party of “No.” And so they produce their own solutions, which is still an expanded government, just expanded in different ways.
You know, right now, I think the best thing you could be is the party of no. I want somebody to stand up in the federal government and say, NO.
NO to the government rushing in with a several hundred billion dollar plan whenever they choose
NO to the constant pursuit of ways to nickel and dime the American people out of their hard earned money with new and hidden taxes
NO to the government thinking that it knows better than us what we should be doing with your lives
NO to the constant stripping away of our freedoms and
NO to the never ending expansion of the federal government!!!!
MORE GOVERNMENT IS NOT AN ANSWER TO OUR PROBLEMS!! WHEN CONGRESS PLANS TO EXPAND THE POWERS AND SIZE OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT BY TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS I WANT SOMEBODY TO SAY NO!!!!
It’s just sad, really. The free market system, the capitalist system, the very idea that we don’t need a king to govern us, the idea that we are not lesser beings to the people in government, the idea that we can go out ourselves, that we can innovate, that we can create, that we can do, the idea that a doctor knows more about medicine that a politician, the idea that an engineer knows more about energy solutions than a glorified lawyer, the idea that a man can choose which charities he wants to contribute to rather than have government create their own brand of social justice, these are the ideas that have made America great! These are the ideas that have made America a dominant superpower for the last 50 years! These are the ideas that have led to the land of opportunity that has attracted the best and the brightest minds and bodies from all over the world so they are free to come to this country to innovate, create and do! These are the ideas that have led to the most prosperous country in the history of the human race!
But prosperity, no, that’s a dirty word now days. We live in a world where prosperity should be punished. We should feel bad for creating the greatest country the world has ever seen. We should be punished for allowing the people born here and the people legally immigrated here for innovating, creating, and doing.
When I look in my apartment, when I look at my soon to be wife, I see beauty. When I look at the freedoms and the opportunities that I was given by being born in the greatest country in the world, I see beauty. When I come home and I get to see the fruits of my labor, when I get to enjoy what I have worked so hard to obtain through education and employment, I see beauty in the liberties I had and what I was able to produce with them.
But when I look at the news, when I keep track of what the federal government is trying to take away from us all, I see just how ugly it all is. And so, I write to you, whoever you may be that is reading this.
I write to my congress men and women about the issues, I do everything I can to make sure my voice is heard in Washington, and I speak loudest with my vote in November. But I am not a forceful person. I don’t want to forcefully impose my thoughts on people. I would rather use my website as a vehicle to make my thoughts available to those who would care to read them.
Because that is my way. That is my personality. That is who I am. I am not a forceful person. I don’t feel the need to disturb those around me for the sake of attention. I am content to create for myself. I derive a pleasure out of creating something that I find pleasing to the senses.
The sense of reason
The sense of thought
The sense of right
The sense of justice
And the sense of truth
And so, because it is so ugly, I am beginning to write. If I continue with this foolish attempt at reason, I will be creating a new section to the website. I refuse to call it a blog, I mean, let’s be real for a second, I am far to ridiculous to indulge myself in something that serious. No, I will be creating a blargh. Though part of me yearns for the day where I would create silly pointless images in an attempt to convey a silly pointless story, I just don’t have it in me to do that any more.
My life is beautiful. I have worked hard, and I have been rewarded. I want to have children soon. When they get to be my age, I want them to have the same chance at a beautiful life that I had.
I want to keep my liberty. I want my children to have that same liberty. But what the hell do I know.