I miss the days of hitchhiking - of being able to feel safe enough to pick up hitchhikers, as well as knowing that it was alright to stick out your thumb and get a ride. I miss what that all "represented."
It really was a much kinder time, a time when people didn't heartlessly blame and ostracize others for their shortcomings and lack of financial position in life. People tolerated one another much better than they do now. They reached out and were more open to differences.
Not like now, when we're being forced into it by suffocating rules and regulations and soooo many laws! It's getting to the point where just about anything can get you outcasted and sent to the sidelines of what is considered "acceptable" society.
I'm not saying that we didn't have problems back then. Of course we did! But instead of becoming a better country, we're just progressing ourselves back into the caveman days. Barbaric. Cruel. Ignorant.
Do something (supposedly) wrong and we'll just tax the hell out of you. Then we'll turn around and tell you that it's for your own good. And if that's not bad enough, we'll add insult to injury by making sure that you're the last to benefit and/or get any help from it.
The powers that be have become masters at pitting one group against another - of putting us all into subgroups - keep us busy picking at one another; putting each other down - creating an environment of anger, hostility, and holier than thou(ness). That way we're drained of all energies to pick on the ones who we should really be picking on - THE POWERS THAT BE!
Isn't it becoming obvious that things aren't getting better? We're not becoming a more "inclusive" society. We're just pushing more and more people out into the lost lands of oblivion-shunning, derogatorily labeling and further deteriorating what made this once-great country great.
L. McElhiney
