Life beyond A-Z

A blog that I semi-regularly read has a story about a European transplant's experience in Washington DC. There's a running theme taken from a children's book the world is simply too big to be crammed into only 26 letters and we must experience life beyond A-Z.

I find myself feeling very similar emotions of late without adequate words to describe it. My normal optimism fails me and I must reach for a reason to believe that the world will be a better place. Part of it is The War Without End. Part of it is simply the provincial attitudes that pervade the culture in which I live. Take this story about commissioners warning against the Day Of Silence for GLBTQ students or this One about a "new drug" Salvia that Purple Haze is selling ( on 34th Street South if you've never been there, just north of the exit for the old Suncoast Resort ). There's some do-gooder state legislator on the west coast... here's the quote:

"We need to do everything we can to protect our children in a world where there are massive temptations," said Sen. Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach.

yes, the same ol tripe they always use. We must "Protect the children from the bad "(insert miscellaneous evil here). Will there ever be a time that American will see this for what it is... nothing more than a govermental power grab. Yet another of your civil liberties taken by an a behemoth nanny state.

As a country we need to see life beyond A-Z. We need to break our insistence that our government take care of us, feed us, medicate us, and then pay for our mortgage when we make unsound financial decisions. I weep for our country. I weep for the future. Or the pessimism could just be a rainy sunday morning when i'm fresh out of tea for breakfast. It's difficult to tell.