In the beginning

You might think that the picture at the top of the webpage is meant as a joke, as if the people are cheering "yay, another blog!" No, it's there to illustrate something else. But speaking of another blog, let me thank anyone that has managed to find this one, and might feel inclined to return to it. I've always assumed that people would like to hear what I have to say. Now, I get to prove it.

I pay a great deal of attention to politics and American culture. That creates a great deal of frustration for me, because I don't care for most of what I see. As I'm getting older I see not only how different this country is compared to my grandfather's time, but also how much it has changed within my own lifetime. Some of the changes are good; most are not.

Let's take this opportunity to analyze the photograph at the top of this page in context to how our society has changed. I'm not sure what year it was taken, but one look at it tells you it was taken a long time ago. Let's call it 1940.

What do we see in this photo? If you look closely you can tell it is a game (football, likely) between a Minnesota school and an Iowa school. That's interesting, but not why we're here. Take a look at the people in the stands. They're wearing coats, ties, hats. One lady has on a fur coat...at a football game. The worst dressed person is a guy in the front in a plaid shirt. He doesn't look bad. He just looks like a rube compared to everyone else. But at a football game today, anywhere, he would be madly overdressed.

"So what's the point, H.K?" The point is that most people today don't get this dressed up for an awards gala, let alone a sports event.
"And you think I want to wear a tie to a game?" No, and neither do I, but I don't want to go out looking like a slob. I have a picture of my grandfather at college (circa 1940) in which he has just left class and joined an impromptu baseball game. He is wearing slacks, dress shoes, dress shirt and a tie loosened at the collar. He wore that to class. And it's not as if the other guys are wearing shorts and t-shirts. When I went to college most people showed up to class looking like bums, with an odor to match.
"Ok, wise guy, what does it all mean?" To be honest with you, I don't know. You tell me. I think this picture shows we've lost something - something valuable, or special. Should we be decked out to the nines just to go to a football game? No, but the pendulum has swung so far in the other direction that we're mired in the opposite, and, quite frankly, I don't like it.

I remember my family eating at restaurants as a kid that wouldn't have let us in if my dad wasn't wearing a jacket. Now, at those same restaurants, people wear tank tops and flip-flops...next to people in tuxedos and prom dresses.

People complain today about the FCC regulating non-cable television, and that there shouldn't be any restrictions. I'll take less government over more government any day of the week, but in this case I'm all for regulation. I didn't think much about how violent or crude the shows I watch could be until I had a child. And I don't want The Kid seeing them, so The Kid won't. But I'm not always around, and when I'm not some parents or people that don't screen their TV programming could be letting Dennis Franz show his ass all over again on NYPD Blue. Do you want your kids seeing that? Wouldn't have had to worry about that thirty or forty years ago, because that kind of thing didn't get onto television.

America is different today folks. Yeah, some things are much better. For instance, I live in the South, and it's a much better place without segregation, thank you. But now, if you even hint at southern heritage you're a racist. Excuse me?

We've definitely lost something folks, but deep down, after you dig through my layers of cynical realism, I'm an optimist. And as long as we don't forget about how things were, maybe we can get the best things back.


How's that for a first blog? (Don't answer that). I'll try to post something at least on a weekly basis. Perhaps next time I'll discuss something that I have completely worked out, like Abortion.