Citizenship 101: The Beginning (Not Really Though)

Welcome to Citizenship 101. Today we begin nowhere near the beginning. History doesn't have a clear beginning, middle, or end. And the history of countries is particularly difficult to pin down. In the United States the beginning comes well before European settlers set up the colonies. It started between 23,000 BCE and 9000 BCE when Asian nomads crossed a frozen land bridge to the continent we now call North America. From then until 1492, when the continent was "discovered" by Christopher Columbus, there was a ton of history and thousands of distinct civilizations, nations, and cultures. I could spend an entire blog just discussing that history, but I am not the archaeologist of the pair so I will leave that period to Raven's expertise.

So I am going to begin in the middle, instead of the beginning, with the "discovery", colonization, and settling of The New World.

Here are some basic facts you should know about the United States before it was the United States.

"Discovery"

- Columbus wasn't the only one who thought the world was round - everyone thought that! 1492 was the year they invented the globe - Columbus believed the circumference of the globe was smaller than it actually was, leading him to believe that he could circumnavigate his way to East Asian riches by sailing into the empty water we now know isn't empty at all.

- Columbus landed in the Bahamas on October 12th 1492, but that wasn't the first time Europeans hit New World soil. Leif Ericson landed in Newfoundland in 1002 or 1003, almost a half century earlier.

- Columbus was a stubborn ass who abused the natives, thought they were too stupid to know where they lived and went to his grave believing he'd found a new route to East Asia. Seriously, why do we celebrate this man?

Colonization

- Between 1565 and 1634 lots of European settlers from England, the Netherlands, France, and Spain began to colonize the Eastern coastline of the new continent.

- In 1590 Roanoke colony, founded by Queen Elizabeth I, mysteriously vanishes along with all its colonists. Modern archaeologist detectives believe the colonists split with some settling in Merry Hill in North Carolina and others assimilated with the Native Americans in the area.

- In 1607 the Virginia Company founded Jamestown in Virginia, which would struggle in its quest for gold, but later succeed hugely in planting something even more valuable (tobacco). 

- In 1620 the fun-loving Puritans joined the colonizing party, hoping to practice their stricter version of Christianity away from the loose and immoral Protestants of Europe.

- Most settlement happened for one of two reasons, religiously persecuted groups gained a monarch's permission to settle or a company gained the monarch's permission to settle and make money in the New World. In both cases the monarch gave permission because it would make the home country wealthier.

- There were 4 distinct areas of colonization: the tobacco colonies in Virginia, The New England Colonies, the Middle Colonies formed in Pennsylvania, and the Southern Colonies between Virginia and Florida.

- The tobacco colonies were settled by the Virginia Company and would eventually become fertile and wealthy farming land for tobacco. It was made up primarily of Virginia and Maryland, with Maryland becoming a haven for Catholics and Virginia for more traditional Protestants.

- The New England Colonies began with the Pilgrims in Plymouth and eventually split into several colonies: Massachusetts, the more religiously liberal Rhode Island, the more restrictive Connecticut, and the wild and untamed colony of New Hampshire.

- The Middle Colonies including New York, Pennsylvania, and Delaware were a mish-mash of all sorts of settlers fleeing religious persecution and became a very prosperous and comparatively egalitarian place for its time.

- The Southern Colonies, which began as only the Carolina Colony, were poorer, mainly agrarian colonies that eked by in pre-Revolutionary times.

Settlement

- By 1775 there were 12 settled colonies: Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Delaware, while often listed as one of the 13 colonies was never actually a colony. It became a state in 1776, after the Declaration.

- Settlers came to the New World in one of three ways: freely, indentured, or enslaved.

- Slavery was practiced all over the New World, but was especially prevalent in the South, especially in tobacco rich areas like Virginia and Maryland.

- The difference in the working conditions of indentured servants and slaves was largely hope - many indentured servants never worked their way out of debt, but they had the opportunity to do so. Slaves had no opportunity. Indentured servitude also petered out much faster than slavery.

- Indentured servants and slaves were both more common in the South than in the North, but both areas had them and without their free labor the 12 colonies would never have been as successful.

- Georgia was largely a buffer area between the more prosperous Carolina colonies and the more hostile Native American nations, poor farmers were granted land in the territory in order to basically serve as a human wall against a less than friendly neighbor.

Truth or Myth?

Starting all the way back with the Puritans, this country has been built on the deep belief in personal freedom and religious tolerance.

I'll give you my two cents next time.

Let me know if you have questions, comments, or more information you'd like to know in the comments!

Houses

There is an entire generation that can, by and large, define their personality by which house they belong to.

Of course, not everybody of my generation has read the Harry Potter books, but they are nevertheless a sort of cultural touchstone. Most pop-culture savvy millennials are at least familiar with terms like Hogwarts and Muggle, even if they haven't actually consumed any of the media in the Harry Potter franchise.

So, understandably, which of the four Hogwarts houses an individual belongs to has become something of a point of speculation for some. There are hundreds of quizzes online that attempt to solve this question, but the definitive quiz by and large seems to be the Sorting Hat quiz on Pottermore, a site moderated by JK Rowling herself.

July 31^st was Harry Potter's 35^th birthday, so the series has been on my mind recently. Earlier today I got into a conversation with some friends about which of the four Hogwarts Houses we all saw ourselves as, and several of us took (or retook) the Pottermore Sorting Hat quiz. Some of us were surprised by the results. Some of us noted that they had changed from earlier results on the same quiz. Some of us recalled relating to one house in particular when we first began to read the books, and then having our views change overtime. That makes sense, we agreed. Personalities change over time. In the decade it took for the books to be written, all of the readers evolved as individuals. What house they most resonated with as an early reader might well be completely at odds with what house they resonated with by the time the series had culminated.

Then one of us pointed out that, at Hogwarts, the same thing happens. Over the seven years a student is expected to attend Hogwarts, a lot can change. But they are permanently assigned to a house that best fit the personalities of their eleven-year-old self. Granted, this brought up several interesting considerations---for instance, Neville displays few traits of the typical Gryffindor for the majority of the series, but in the end proves himself capable of wielding the sword of Godric Gryffindor himself. Does the Sorting Hat know who a student will end up becoming? What are the greater implications of that?

Think back to your eleven-year-old selves. Who were you then? Who are you now? Do you still hold the same fundamental values? Are your principle worldviews still the same? Do you interact with people the same way?

And when it comes right down to it, how important is the Sorting Hat? How strong of an influence does a student's house have on them? After all, Hagrid asserts that "There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin," though this is clearly untrue since Peter Pettigrew, who betrays his best friends for Voldemort (though ultimately sacrifices himself in a final act of redemption) was a Gryffindor, and the inverse certainly isn't true since there were countless Slytherins who never “went bad” and countless more who redeemed themselves. So, while being sorted into a particular house comes with certain stigmas and expectations, it is not enough to shape who you are or who you will become. Yet, it serves as a convenient way for Hogwarts students to label themselves and others. It becomes a part of their identity, both internally and externally, and influences both how they are viewed and how they are treated.

At eleven, human brains are still far from being fully developed. It seems absurd that so integral a part of a young witch or wizard's identity would rest on a choice made at so young an age.

Admittedly, that choice is being made by a sentient hat, so this may just have to be one of those times where logic takes a back seat to magic, and that's perfectly alright.

What house are you? Is this different from what you used to see yourself as? Tell us in the comments below!

Thoughts From Places #1

Today Raven and I went to the beach. We frolicked in the waves and soaked up the sun (in my case a bit too literally). Originally we were going to kayak on the beautiful, serene lake that we are fortunate enough to live near… but the beautiful, serene lake was less serene and more possessed by angry wind demons today. Less boating, but awesome waves at the beach. Raven and I braved cold water and colder wind to throw ourselves at the cresting water with the abandon of the silliest of children. Fitting because we were the only ones in the water over the age of 16.

As we threw ourselves at the waves we watched kite-surfers throw themselves into the sky with equal abandon. I felt alive and aware and completely in the moment, something I yearn towards feeling at all times. It strikes me that feeling alive is usually correlated fairly strongly with meeting and facing things that could kill you. Skydiving, climbing Mt. Everest, braving Death Valley, running with the bulls, singing karaoke. Okay, that last one probably won’t kill you, but I remain unconvinced. We derive joy and excitement from facing our deaths. Facing something that is larger or more powerful than ourselves.

I grew up on the Atlantic Ocean and spent most summers diving into the freezing northern Atlantic waters – lips blue, arms numb, ice running through my veins. It remains one of my fondest memories of childhood and stands out clearly in my memory. It also remains one of my earliest memories of terror (aside from the standard monster under the bed variety). The ocean to me as a child (and even today) is a vast unknowable thing. It may not be infinite, but neither can I see nor imagine its whole and so is the closest thing on this earth to infinite that I have experienced.  And it is one of my most indelible memories. Etched into my memory by fear and awe.

As I threw myself at a far smaller body of water this afternoon I felt a similar feeling of awe (though admittedly less fear), but my sense of awe came not from living close to death and instead came more from a feeling of oneness. I couldn’t see the bottom where my feet were buried in sand, but I could close my eyes and feel the movement of the water, the pull of the sand, the chill of the wind and I was a part of it. I felt connected and infinite. Both incredibly large and infinitesimally small.

Perhaps we don’t pull the marrow of our lives from living on the brink of death, but from throwing us into the infinite and (for a time) allowing it to absorb a part of our being. 

A Year of New Experiences

Well, clearly I was not so good at updating during my hiatus. Are we surprised? No? Yeah, okay, that's fair!

I'm planning a fairly long post (or possible multiple posts) about the reason for my hiatus: a family trip to Holland and Norway. Spoilers: it was awesome. For today, though, here's a bit of a reflective post.

I turned 24 last Friday. In many ways, 23 wasn't a great year for me. I quit a job for the first time. I quit a job for the second time. I had my first ER visit, closely followed by my second ER visit. I had my first MRI, my second MRI, my first elimination diet, my second elimination diet, and so on. I dropped my first course, had my first car die, and mourned the loss of my first, longest, and biggest hero. At first, when I looked back on my year, it was kind of hard to get all that excited about it. For much of this year, I felt like a failure. I felt like I had accomplished nothing. I felt like I had given up so many things that I should have pursued. Now, almost all of these disappointments were directly linked to being ill, so I recognized on some level that it wasn't necessarily any great weakness of spirit that was my shortcoming, but rather the it was the inevitable manifestation of the unforseen side effects of Mystery Illness. After a point, however, it became hard to console myself with that reminder. I beat myself up for allowing myself to become a victim of circumstance. Even if I couldn't control my illness, certainly I could control my life, so really, what was my excuse? To a certain extent I think this is true, and to a certain extent I think it's untrue, and probably not fair to myself. But that's an entirely different issue. The point is, I was struggling to find any reason to be proud of the past year, and I felt like I had nothing positive to show for it.

But yesterday, I received something in the mail, and with it a much needed change of perspective. An envelope addressed to me showed up along with the weekly ads and junk mail, and inside it was a check. From my client, for whom I am doing some promotional blogging for his novels. 

I had just received my first paycheck as a freelance writer.

This brought on a degree of pride and satisfaction far greater than I had expected, and even more importantly, it got me thinking about all of the other "firsts" of the past year. Not all of them were positives, clearly, as shown above. But a lot of them were, and a lot of them were pretty big, too. They just got lost in the mire of my disappointments, and I focused on all of the wrong things. 

Some of these achievements are big. Some are small. Some are personal, some are professional, and some are silly. All of them, however, are important to me, and I am grateful for them all.

With that in mind, here's another list:

Raven's 15 Firsts of the Past Year

1.) First paycheck as a freelance writer

2.) First paycheck as a freelance web designer

3.) First experience as a video game journalist

4.) First blog (thanks guys!)
5.) First post-college classes (even if had to drop one of them, I learned a lot from both, and am proud of myself for continuing my education.)
6.) First time writing my own functional code (since I'm not willing to count the tinkering I did in high school and college as "functional")

7.) First full year in my own apartment ("own" meaning I pay rent, not that I live alone, in this case)

8.) First time living alone with a significant other

9.) First new car (see how I turned one of my negatives into a positive? Perspective!)

10.) First trip to my family cottage without my parents or any other family members (one of the big signs of adulthood in my family)

11.) First out-of-town nerd convention (going to cons is one thing, but traveling and renting a hotel room for them? A whole different experience!)

12.) First watercolor painting (Paintings of maps count, right?)

13.) First penpal!

14.) First time being a regular at a comic book shop (It's a big deal to me, okay?)

15.) First experience with being self-employed (It's terrifying! And rewarding!)

And as a super special bonus, two weeks ago I met my incredibly sweet cousin for the first time, right before he turned a year old. I love that kid!

There's a Hebrew prayer that is said upon experiencing something for the first time, the Shehecheyanu (שהחינו‎). I'm not particularly spiritual, but this prayer has always resonated with me:

 בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם שֶׁהֶחֱיָנוּ וְקִיְּמָנוּ וְהִגִּיעָנוּ לזְּמַן הַזֶּה.

Blessed are you, Eternal God, Sovereign of the universe, who has given us life, sustained us, and helped us to reach this moment. 

Thanks for reading.

P.S. The project that has consumed a very large part of the past year isn't quite wrapped up like I had hoped it would be by now. I won't say anymore just yet (though if we've talked much in the past year you probably know about it) but it definitely introduced a whole slew of new experiences, and I am very excited to tell you about it, I hope soon!

Next Time on Owl and Raven...

Hey guys,

Quick post tonight because I'm wiped. No sleep plus eight hours on my feet makes a tired Owl. Certainly one without much in the way of coherent thought.

Tonight I wanted to share my next project for the blog. I'm planning to do a series on US history, specifically focusing on stuff a lot of us learned in high school and haven't revisited since then. Or things I think we should have learned in high school, but (at least I) didn't.

It's going to be called Citizenship 101, mostly because I think anyone who is, or wants to be, a citizen of the US should make sure to know at least the basics of how our government works and what some of the really important landmark moments in our history are. I know I will do installments on things like the country's founding, the three branches of government, a range of social issues, geography, and things of that ilk. What I would like to know is if anyone has any other suggestions or things they want to know more about. Like: why exactly did we fight the War of 1812? What made the Gilded Age gilded? Or just general areas of US history you think are important.

Let me know in comments and I will do it!



Also due to a 16 hour work day ending at 11pm tomorrow, the blog will not update. Forgive me, I have no desire to wake up at 5am to do a blog post. I'm just not that dedicated.

Until next time,
Owl

And the Number One Is....

Number One Most Insulting Country Music Song (in my opinion) is....

1. "Still A Guy" by Brad Paisley

This one makes me extra sad because I usually really like Paisley's music, but this song is insulting on so many levels that it actually made me like all his other good songs much less. This song combines some of my biggest turn-offs from mainsplaining to gender stereotyping and even a borderline sexual assault-ish line.

The song is sung by a man explaining to his girlfriend that although she may change him in some small ways he will always be who he is. That message is fine (and in fact I like songs that take the position that being in a relationship isn't about changing the other person), but the song takes it a step further and claims that he will always be "a guy". Here's where I take issue with that message: there isn't just one way to be a guy. Paisley seems to define a man as someone who fishes, hunts, doesn't understand art, and doesn't understand when his partner wants closeness but not sex.

Paisley equates getting manicures, hair highlighting, even putting lotion on your hands with getting neutered (seriously - those are the exact words he uses). That is a narrow-minded, and frankly unacceptable, viewpoint to hold in the 21st century. Being a man shouldn't have to be about being the toughest person in the room and taking pride in a rugged, un-groomed appearance. That is only one way to be a man (and frankly one way to be a woman, too). There is no blueprint or checklist for the genders. A woman doesn't have to be "feminine" to be a woman. A man doesn't have to be "masculine". In fact, I would love to get rid of those two words all together because they mean nothing to me anymore. I have a lot of female identifying friends who are tough, strong, hunting, fishing, outdoors-y folk. That doesn't make them "a guy" any more than not being those things makes you not a guy. It makes you, you.

It makes me so angry so see this message being sent out, even in country music to people who might take it to heart and get away from who they are so they can be who they think they should be.

The best excerpts from "Still A Guy"

• "when you say a backrub mean only a backrub/Then you swat my hand when I try/Well, what can I say athe end of the day/Honey, I'm still a guy"
• "I might walk your sissy dog, hold your purse at the mall/But remember I'm still a guy"
• "I don't highlight my hair/Yeah, I've still got a pair"

How are any of these things okay to say these days? They shouldn't be.

When I discover songs like this sometimes I have to take a break from country music because it reminds me that this genre is, in many ways, stuck too deeply in the past. When country music draws this strongly from its traditional southern roots I am reminded that I don't belong in that culture. That it makes me feel uncomfortable and unsafe. And most of all, it alienates me. If country musicians were smart they would realize their audience is a wide one and although their music is rooted in the past, it doesn't have to stay there.

To end this post on a happier note I'll share some of my favorite recent songs in country music - with better messages!

Country Songs With Messages I Can Get Behind (in no particular order)

1. "Follow Your Arrow" by Kacey Musgraves* (an upbeat "be yourself" anthem that is incredibly inclusive and even LGBT friendly!)
2. "Girl in a Country Song" by Maddie and Tay (about the sexism in bro-y country music)
3. "Diamond Rings and Old Bar Stools" by Tim McGraw (about a break-up)
4. "Little Toy Guns" by Carrie Underwood (about the damage angry words can have - especially in terms of the effects of parental arguing on their children)
5. "If I Die Young" by The Band Perry (a meditation on dying young...? It's hard to describe)
6. "Whiskey Lullaby" by Brad Paisley and Allison Krauss** (a story about a man and woman destroyed by alcoholism)
7. "Loving You Easy" by Zac Brown Band (pretty generic love song, but I'm really digging it at the moment)
8. "I Got the Boy" by Jana Kramer (a nostalgia-laden remembrance of young love)
9. "All Kinds of Kinds" by Miranda Lambert (about how the world needs diversity)
10. "One of the Guys" by Terri Clark (a better way to do gender - on an individual basis)

So there's my country music rant. I am off to listen to everything Kacey Musgraves ever released...

Best wishes,

Owl

*All her music is phenomenal. She is a talented lyricist and super progressive. 

** Allison Krauss (a bluegrass singer) has the most angelic voice I have ever heard.

A Confession with a Side of Rage

Here's the confession: I'm a country music fan. Surprised? I always am. I'm certainly not the demographic country music is marketed for. I am a mid-twenties Northerner from a big city who is queer, culturally Jewish, and incredibly liberal. I lived in the south for a grand total of 2 months with no intention to stay there any longer than necessary. I have serious reservations regarding southern culture in everything from politics to social issues.

But... I still enjoy country music. I like that the songs can (and often are) about little, everyday moments. I like how a lot of country music focuses on telling a story. The music has a lot of personality. So much so that Raven and I have both based scenes and characters at least in part off country songs.

I also think, contrary to what a lot of people believe, that country music can be very beautiful and even well-written. I have heard some very clever, very funny country songs that are a blast to sing along with. Which brings me to prime reason I like country music - most of the songs are largely inoffensive and fun to jam with in my car, where I consume most of my music. But there are times the songs are very offensive. Times when country music shows its roots; the ones planted firmly in the controversial past of this country.

Tonight I thought I would give you another list.... *drum roll*

Owl's Top 3 Most Offensive Country Songs 

(in descending order of offense)

3. "Girl Crush" by Little Big Town
I cannot get away from this song right now and that may be why a fairly inoffensive song is getting my number 3 spot when there are way worse songs that I know I have heard from this genre before. But right now this is a song that is getting under my skin more than any other on the radio. And guys, since most of you don't listen to country radio, let me tell you right now - this song is ALL OVER country radio. In fact, I heard it 4 times today, alone. Or the first few bars before I quickly switched stations. Once, when I tried to switch, I found two stations playing it at the same time. Ugh.

So, why do I hate this song? Well, it's a song about Girl A wanting to be like Girl B because Girl B is dating a dude who Girl A really wants to date. Maybe some of you can already see my problem... That is not the definition of a girl crush. At all. That is jealousy. With some good old-fashioned envy thrown in. It would be a girl crush if Girl A wanted to date Girl B. Or even had a little platonic infatuation going on. Who, straight or gay, hasn't been a little bit in awe of a good friend of the same gender before?

It's wouldn't really be a big deal, except the song sets it up to be like an actual queer song for the first minute or so. The opening lines are, "I got a girl crush, hate to admit it but/I got a heart rush, ain't slowin' down/ I got it real bad, want everything she has/ That smile and the midnight laugh she's givin' you now". Later lines include gems like "I don't get no sleep... thinking about her under your bed sheets... I can't get her off my mind." Then the chorus.... The terrible chorus where the singer (a woman, by the way) says she wants to "taste her lips" because they "taste like [the random dude]". Yeah, that's why I want to kiss girls...

So - what's the big deal you may ask? Seems like just a clever way to say she's jealous, right? Yeah, probably. But being queer myself these are thoughts I have had without the desire for the attached dude. This song uses lines that could describe a lesbian woman lusting after a straight woman and turns it into a straight unrequited love song. And justified or not, that makes me furious. I feel that this song steals a bit of my culture and warps it to fit the dominant culture. It feels icky and wrong to listen to words I have heard gay women say about doomed crushes they've had on straight women being used to create this sort of narrative.

I'm sure most people don't react to this song this way and I'm not even mad at Little Big Town for making the song. I'm sure they didn't even think about how this might affect actual queer folks (also I'm willing to bet not all queer folks would have my reaction). But mostly, this song makes me feel cheated. What could have been a song about an innocent infatuation with a friend or even a riskier song about a not innocent attraction to another woman was really just another way to write a straight romance. And it's clear the song wants you to think it's going to be a queer song for the first little bit (it's gotten a lot of criticism for being too gay, by the way) and that's the worst part for me. I was so excited that maybe country music would have a song for me, but it wasn't. And that hurt. More than it maybe should have, but I still can't stand to hear it. Even if I am being irrational.

2. "Way Out Here" by Josh Thompson
It was hard to determine a winner (or maybe loser) between my two top picks. This one I rated slightly lower because... I get the sentiment, though I am far from agreeing with it. I hate this song on a political basis, but there are lot of other country songs I disagree with politically but can listen to and respect on some level. This one... I can't. I won't listen to it if it's on the radio and I could only listen to about half of it before writing this post. I got so mad I had to just look up the lyrics instead. Not that those aren't rage-inducing all on their own.

This song is a man singing about how things are done "way out here", which I can only imagine means in the deep south, where much of the culture of country music originates. The songs starts out on a strong note for making me hate it. Opening lines? "Our houses are protected by the Good Lord and a gun". I'm not a big gun person, so I'm already not loving this, but country songs are full of guns and Jesus (who as a lapsed Jew I'm also not big on). So I keep listening. There's a funny line about southerners fry everything and then the chorus hits and I'm done. Here is the chorus in its entirety:

We won't take a dime if we ain't earned it

When it comes to weight, brother we pull our own

If it's our backwoods way of living you're concerned with

You can leave us alone

We're about John Wayne, Johnny Cash and John Deere

Way out here

My biggest problem is the first line of this chorus because it shows a gross ignorance of politics that is frankly incredibly damaging in this country. Just because you don't get a check from the government every month, that does not mean you aren't getting monetary support from them. Country glorifies farmers. Farmers as a group receive over 20 billion dollars in federal subsidies every year. That's a lot of dimes you haven't really earned. The US cotton industry is one of the most heavily subsidized in the world, to the detriment of emerging markets like Brazil. Just because you can't see the check, doesn't mean the money isn't there, Mr. Thompson.

The second line is equally infuriating. What he's saying is "his people" aren't a drain on the country. They pull their own weight. But I don't know who "his people" are. Many states in the deep south are very dependent on federal aid (in that they take in more than they pay out). 5 out of 10 of the most federal dependent states in the union are in the south. So, I'm not sure who you are talking about pulling their own weight, but it terms of numbers - much of the south doesn't. 

And here's where Mr. Thompson and I differ - I don't see anything wrong with that. The states on that list are some of the poorest in our country (Mississippi and Louisiana to name two) and the people who live in poverty in those states deserve to live healthy and safe lives. That is where the federal dollars go - towards keeping people safe who can't always ensure their own safety. That's not shameful - for the federal government or the people getting the help they need.

So it's not your "backwood way of living" I'm concerned with, Mr. Thompson. It's your backwards way of thinking. It's great to rely on yourself and embrace individualism, but when you suggest running the whole country "like it used to be, ought to be, just like it's done out here" I have the feeling you don't really know what you're talking about. But people are listening. And telling the government to stay out of it. To the detriment of the people who greatly need and rely on federal money.  

The last two lines just bug me because none of those folks are politicians and this is a very political song. John Wayne was asked numerous times to run for office and always declined and that's probably a good thing. Wayne isn't the political role model I'd pick. He was an unapologetic white supremacist and blamed the Native Americans for being selfish when they tried to keep their land when Europeans landed in the New World. Though Johnny Cash had a very individualistic image he also championed the cause of prisoners, addicts, and Native Americans. I can get behind that, but I'm not sure that's what Mr. Thompson is getting at. I won't even get into John Deere. They're a company interested in continuing to make money. They give money to candidates who will get that done. Nothing more. 

What offends me here is mostly the ignorance that goes along with the song. And that people will listen to this and take it as a rallying cry. People take too much at face value with the federal, and local, governments. To really understand and engage with politics it is essential to be well-informed. I don't think this song is a good example of that and I think it's an irresponsible use of celebrity that irks me a great deal - though I admit it might irk me less if I didn't vehemently disagree with the song's premise.

This is getting to be a loooong post and I have a lot to say about the last song so I will save it until tomorrow. Once my blood pressure has returned to normal. Good night all!