Don't trip on my caucass...

Okay, let's discuss America, as it is today.

Why not? Everyone else seems to be quite chatty about the state of affairs within this country, and with good reason; we should. Things are fantastic, and they suck at the same time. I think it's the most exciting era in our existence.

I truly believe that this current period of history has provided our poets, artists, and politicians with more cannon fodder than anything since the 60's. Hell, since the Renaissance. We're living in a timeline that will define a significant arc in human events...ages from now. This time is full of joy and turmoil...I mean here we are living in a cultural bubble that's a result of our own prosperity, and we're pretty comfortable with that...then BAM!

The world kinda changes for us all on a September morning.

Now we're no longer isolationists.
Now we're focused on something that isn't trivial.
Now we're angry.

I still have the Time magazine, printed September 12th, 2001. I still open it every once in a while to remember. To feel. It's not like I could forget...more like I live in a country where we become indifferent to everything -- regardless of its importance -- within just a few months of its occurrence.

Oh yeah, remember that invasion of our constitutionally protected privacy that was passed into law a few weeks back? I remember that. Oh yeah, that whole child molestation thing the pop star was involved with, yeah...wonder how that’s going? Yeah, and that girl who could have possibly been killed by that congressman? Oh, and how bout those alter boys and the priests eh? Whew, man I sure am glad Ben & Jennifer are getting married...oh wait.

I'm not lookin’ down from a soapbox, either. I've enjoyed terribly futile drivel (Read Pokemon Mester post) when I could have been consuming something that made a difference.

That's the point; we all do it.

We're all becoming numb, people. We're feeding off that damn box in our living room and not on the reality of our existence at this very moment. We have digested so much pop culture and cashed in on the American dream so many times that we, as a generation, have become something more dangerous than terrorism, liars in the White House, or Carbs.

We've become indifferent.

So many people think hate is the opposite of love, and miss the true irony that is indifference. If you hate something or someone, it takes a powerful emotion to fuel that hatred. It's love. In every case, you had to love it before you hated it. Think about it...

...if you're a bigot...have you ever wished they would just stop behaving that way? And if they did, wouldn't you treat them just like anyone else?

...and what if you're just bitter about life? Remember when you felt like you could fly? Even if it was fleeting, it existed.

...that person in your life that destroyed everything...

Hatred is something born of love. It is a razor's edge that cuts our hearts to hate something. Indifference can swallow your heart whole. Indifference can render compassion null and void. Indifference can make a monster out of anyone.

We've become quick-dry sponges of emotion. Be realistic with yourself. No matter how big the tragedy, or how involved we become, we just seem to move on to the next big thing -- and we do it pretty damn quickly nowadays.

Maybe it's because we've never had a great war? Maybe it's because we've never really had to face a massive adversity that could change our way of life forever. Maybe this generation hasn't got the balls to care about anything because we've never been challenged enough to show em’ in all their red, white, and blue glory.

Many progressive anthropologists and sociologists predicted a great surge of young American will and determination to rise from the ashes of the 9/11 tragedy. The minds of the world said stand back, here comes one of the most empowered generations ever. This could be big.

(insert sound of balloon deflating here)

But no, we decide that we're gonna’ slap a flag on our car for a while and play nice to President Bush for a few months...while he baby sits us into a state of quazi-avenged amicability.

I keep that Time magazine for a reason. We were raw when it was published. Suddenly our litigious society sunk into gaping wound that needed to NOT sue someone for showing dead bodies strewn about Wall Street. For some reason, we all decided we needed to expose ourselves to the truth of the matter and the gore of what happened. I think we all felt this urge to make that feeling a permanent scar. To make this our Pearl Harbor. To make this our Boston Tea Party. To make this mean something important enough to stick to it for Christ sake.

We're not raw anymore. We've lapsed into our Prozac induced coma again. Think about the clarity of vision we had while the World Trade Center was still burning. While we were still united in one vision of sweet revenge. Think about the clarity of vision that we all shared. The simple beauty of it is scary. This kind of singular motivation has led to some of the most dramatic pages in our history.

Now, who could blame you for thinking about the Superbowl more times this week than the prospects of our military finding Osama Bin Laden...it's the damn Superbowl after all (Go Carolina!) but realistically...where are you now? Where are we all? What the hell are we doing about it all?

Do you think we should be carpet bombing the middle east till it glows white hot, or do you think we're imposing our will on the rest of the world again? Either way, what the hell have you done about it? Have you sat at home and swelled with anger at each report of an American soldier who dies from a damn car bomb, or did you fill with rage when you saw the anti-war demonstrators who seem oblivious to the soldiers who died for their rights to protest?

Either way, what did you do about it?

Did you decide to vote? Did you decide to let your voice be heard? Did you decide to stop being indifferent to what you KNOW is wrong? In the end, did you decide to change the way you let the idle moments control your active ones? I kind of teetered between being outraged and outclassed by my own boredom.

But not anymore.

I'm sick and tired of hearing the machine in my head. I'm sick and tired of coming to the surface of this muck, and then slowly gurgling down to the bottom as soon as some new fad comes along. I wanna care about this country, and I wanna care about those of us who live here.

I wanna do what all the previous generations did; leave the world a better place for the next one. We shouldn't be so damn selfish and think that there's no danger in losing America.

Guess what, the Roman Empire had been around twice as long as our country, won more battles, and accomplished more (to scale) than any previous society since. It was also brought down by a small group of people who thought the Romans were the personification of laziness, excess, and evil. (sound familiar?) They made the error of becoming complacent and obsessed with trivial things. This, the greatest world superpower in history, was defeated by the indifference of its own people.

We can NOT become a footnote in a history book years from now. Think about how skewed the history we're taught as kids can be, and think about what a few centuries could make us look like to our descendants. We must carve out this era, and establish that we were strong and assertive. That we gave a shit, and we did something about it.

We can become the greatest generation that ever lived. We can.