Just Like Me!

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     1965-1966 wasn't really that long ago (in my head) but the world keeps trying to make it seem like an eternity ago. Everything has changed since then but what cannot change is what I remember about that time and how my America looked (and sounded) to me. When I think of music from that era the first band that comes to mind is these guys; if you don't know who they were then I am better off being me instead of you!

    Over the past half-century those of us that do know have been witnesses to a revolution of sorts that no one back then could have possibly imagined. It would be too easy to blame American politics for our downward shift in values and an economy that has spiraled so out of control that America doesn't even resemble what it was then, but I'll take the easy route here and blame Ameican politics anyway for the thrashing it doles out every day to all of us in one way or another.

  In recent years our country has been steered by the kind of people who 50 years ago would have been too embarrassed to be heard saying some of the things they now proudly say or admitting to anyone who they really are. We have become a society that has taken freedom of speech to a level so high that anyone can say nearly anything they want unless what is being said offends someone else, depending on who they are.

   But still that level of freedom is higher and far more relaxed than it ever has been in my lifetime, but only for people that either weren't around 50 years ago that look back on our history and want to change it, or for anyone that looks back and wants the rest of us to erase any thoughts in our heads that it was better for us than what we have to deal with today. The person reading this entry that doesn't know who this remarkably talented rock & roll band was might be thinking they dressed funny or even goofy compared to many other acts from that era, but that person probably wouldn't think some of today's stars do.

For instance: some of the female superstars who want to draw more attention to their barely covered crotches than to their faces or some of those dudes with tattooed arms, necks and faces that dress like thugs or mannequins in a jewelery store; their "gimmicks" are fine with the generation that is eager to erase and forget what this country was before they were born. But I will continue to spite those people by holding onto and celebrating an era, that by living through it has probably left me a better man than most of them can ever hope to be.

Having made such a bold statement I guess I should define what I believe is a "better man."

   In today's mostly liberal dominated America the best men are the ones that act more like their sisters than their fathers. America has become soft and gentle and is more comparable to places like Paris, France than the streets of the old south end in Columbus, Ohio. More like Sweden than cities like old Detroit or Cleveland. To be thought of as a "good man" by some today, men should feel ashamed of how we went about things and how we solved our problems 50 years ago; they should display a more feminine side as often as possible and they should accept being not only the weaker sex but be the champions of every liberal cause whether they benefit from it, or really don't embrace it.

I think back to my own dad and the kind of man he was and I remember other good men that influenced me and now that most of them are gone I look around hoping to find other men who are  like them. But instead I mostly see images of people that are only shaped like them; that is, until I look into a mirror. I don't put myself on their level because they endured things I never had to but I do my best to always be as much like them as I possibly can and that infuriates many people today.

   But I am okay with infuriating people when they and I stand on opposite sides of different issues and it is why I am putting more and more distance between myself and anything or anyone I don't want to be near. That open mind I used to boast of having isn't as open as it was before others tried to take advantage of it by asking for more than was ever fair to ask for and it is why I have widened the gap between me and everything I don't want, or don't believe in.

None of us know the date or time we will depart this life, but if I make it until just past 3:00 AM, July 26th, 2016 I will have been here for 64 years. If I make it to then, or when everything finally goes dark and silent for me I want to still be the man my dad probably hoped I would always be. I won't whack off my genitals and I won't pretend to be on-board with any person or any idea that I don't agree with and I won't give up my own freedom of speech even if it means hurting another's feelings.

It is what followers of my blogs have come to expect from me and I have no intention of wavering from it. To borrow a line from one of America's most celebrated maritime figures..."I'm one tough Gazookus, which hates all Palookas"

Google that lyric! I hope to always live in the world he was in and always act accordingly to all circumstances as he did, because there was a real man!