Damn it! It's Today!

    I can remember 1955.  I can remember standing by the cellar door and wondering how I got so lucky as to be born in the United States of America.  The cellar door was in the dining room where I was regularly told children were starving across the world.  I was usually told that when I refused to eat my peas or lima beans.  I can distinctly remember thinking they should send those peas or lima beans to those starving children because I effn A wasn't gonna eat them. I coulda been born in Santa's Workshop at the North Pole and I wouldn't have eaten those peas or lima beans. Peas and lima beans have crossed my lips. That's how I know they are disgusting little sacks of sand.  I am no gourmand. They put peas in pot pies.  I wish they wouldn't. If they didn't pot pies would be perfect. I consider the Combo to be nature's perfect food.
    How did we get this lucky?  On what planet do we have a right to bitch?  There are 7 billion people on this planet and about half of them are starving. Our concerns are morbid obesity.  If you're not ashamed, some days  I'm ashamed enough for both of us. But not today.
    I subscribe to Archaeology, the magazine. By 1955, the city of Gary, Indiana had more monumental architecture than the entire ancient world.  It still does but they have torn some of it down. That's true across the developed world. Looked at that way, it's just amazing. What do you think they tore down at Giza?  Was there ever a Great Row of Hedges?  The Statue of Liberty would make the Colossus of Rhodes look like an undernourished child.  Did you know the erection and pedestal for the Statue of Liberty were paid for not by the government but thru private donations?  I like it here! Kate Smith and Woody Guthrie were both privately funded. I like it here!
    How much of a privilege is it to live in a country where our debates are about how we can become even greater while losing weight?  The froth of our endeavors funds a 4 trillion annual enterprise known as the gubermint. We live on a wave of prosperity so great it easily provides for the children of the most despicable among us. That prosperity was created by our parents and grandparents. You know, the ones ladling out peas. Each generation has added to it regardless of our choice of legumes. The young people seem to be even more rigid in their pride. My 40 something daughter, given the right circumstances, would denounce me as a commie.
    There is a school of thought that berates us for being such a small percentage of the World's population and consuming such a large percentage of the World's resources. The available evidence is; we are the engine that drives the World. It's more than reasonable to expect that engine to consume fuel at a famous rate.  It's certainly nothing to be ashamed of.
    So, take heart! You're an American and this is today. You don't need to wear a silly hat or denigrate your fellow citizens even if they do wear silly hats. You needn't wear a flag. You needn't wave a flag. The wave of progress is so powerful it can't be stopped or even slowed much.