DEATH OF A NATION

DEATH OF A CITY, STATE AND COUNTRY.

Good Evening:

I was watching television recently and I happened on a talk show in progress. Now I almost never watch these shows, as it is a seldom thing when any of the participants know what the Hell they're talking about, but on this particular bit of Television verbiage the participants were discussing and Tsk-Tsk-ing the near abandonment of certain neighborhoods in many, if not most, large cities in the U.S. Now all these "learned" folks all had a different opinion of what was the cause of the decay of these once nice neighborhoods, and I should stress Neighborhoods, even though the participants on
 this show did not. they just glossed over the fact that in these areas people lived, worked, maintained their properties, raised their children and felt safe and a sense of pride in their neighborhood, but slowly but surely as these long ago good Citizens either died or moved to the suburbs, in what pundits call "White Flight", and these once fine areas decayed, as many, if not most of the properties became rental properties, as their owners could find no one willing to live in a changing neighborhood, as they would not feel safe in doing so. And they were right. So the decay continued. Where happy children once played on safe streets, but were told, with no discussion, to be in before dark. these same children were living in an atmosphere of Good Manners, attention to Schoolwork, obeying the law, and growing up to be a good member of a prosperous city , state and Country.
But No longer. As the houses were either rented, as long as they here habitable, or alternatively occupied by either a family where no Father was present, or were occupied by would-be gangsters or "Crack Pads" or drug houses. In the isolated home where an actual family lived, one with a Father as well as a Mother, and decent children lived, they lived in constant fear for their safety. On almost any street corner you would find either one or more Hookers or a Drug Pusher or two. It is not uncommon to find a child as young as ten or so being used by these pushers to fetch a given amount of drugs, once the pusher was sure that he was not selling to a Policeman, as in the unlikely event of a "Bust", the young runner would be lectured and sent home by the Authorities, and would in too many instances, go right back to his same job with a different pusher.
And yet the participants in these so called "Talk Shows" would blame everyone except the people to blame from this decay. They would blame the Government, the Police, the Schools and the Churches, ignoring the fact that most Schools and Churches had also fled to the Suburbs. but they still talked, around and around, weekend after weekend, and the decay continued and is continuing.

The predictable effect of all this is simple. First neighborhoods, then cities have fallen into decay, the Police and Fire Departments WILL NOT go into these areas, as they are not fools, to unnecessarily risk their lives for people and areas that are just not worth it, and before you know it the City is doomed, and people such as Ray Nagin, the onetime Mayor of New Orleans, run these cities long enough to fill their pockets, and those of their cronies, and the decay continues, unabated, and only seldom is any one of these 'City Killers', once their pockets are full, fail to move to a safer area themselves.
But not one person will speak up and assign the blame to those responsible, for fear of being called a racist.
But maybe one of these fine days a man or a woman will say "Just a damned Minute, I'm sick and tired of the people of these United States being so damned quick to blame everything and everybody but themselves for the state of their neighborhoods. Some misguided people have felt that they could change the Nation through Elections, even going to the extreme of Electing a man, or a number of Men (and Women) too, who have never managed anything in their lives, but they are the color dujour, religion du jour, attitude and well....Hell, you get the idea. We've currently got a President who waltzed into the highest Office in the land, not because of his qualifications, for he had none, but for his ability to read a good speech from a teleprompter, and for his Color (that and a bunch of millions of Dollars from Oprah). And these selfsame people have convinced themselves, and made excuses into the hundreds for Junior. "Looky there everybody in the Band is out of step but Junior".

Now I have admitted a hard truth, and that is that I am an Old Man, and as any fool will tell you an Old Man is, or should be, free to tell the truth.
I'll let you in on another little secret. I once thought that the harder you worked, on almost any job, the more success you would have. But that truth turned out to not hold true, which I found out the hard way, that of working over 35 years with that belief, only to, after working for 20 years in a Nuclear Fuels Laboratory, be disabled and gasping for breath every day, all day. Now, it's true that I made a living in all these jobs, to a greater or lesser degree, but I NEVER hit the Mother Lode. That Executive Job that would enable my Wife and I to sock a Bank full of Dollars in Savings to enable us to live what is customarily known now as the good life.
But take Heart America. There's always Bankruptcy. Of the Pocketbook I mean. The Country is already morally Bankrupt, I fear.

Stay Well and Hope for the Best.

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