Public Nudity (but not yet)

Okay, so I had originally written about three paragraphs actually on America's path toward widely accepted public nudity, but after going to Madagascar and almost sickening myself to the point of vomiting on multiple occasions while trying to dissuade the locals from the outright laughable notion that America is a great land of tolerance and understanding I decided to alter my topic for the immediate post.

To wit, I was embarrassed to the point of silence (for me that's one step away from passing out) by having to correct new found friends in their misconstrued ideas that all their problems could be solved just by getting to the world's "Melting Pot."

Now the concept of a "Melting Pot" is such that no matter what goes in it all mixes together and makes the whole better than it was before....pardon me if I become VERY cynical at this point.

To be blunt, America hasn't ever been a melting pot. Some of the first acts that "Americans" did when they first came to this country was to first begin to push out the indigenous (in my opinion the real Americans) from our borders. We then used black slave labor to fortify our forcibly acquired land possessions and set up local governments that wouldn't begin to even cooperate with each other until a larger enemy rose up in England and began to oppress the colonists in a dissimilar fashion to the outright slavery and extermination tactics being used by "Americans" themselves.

The supposed "Melting Pot" concept came into place when we started accepting white Irish immigrants trying to escape the Potato Famine into the northern forces during the Civil War (at the time the Irish were looked on with disdain by the rest of Europe). This was at first a good thing that we were willing to do something no one else was. But even then we were just using them as cannon fodder and expendable shock troops in order to push back the Southern advance. Of course it is probably worth noting that using these desolate Irish workers in such a manner was at best only a single step above the Southern slave oppression we were so self-righteously fighting against.

But that's all ancient history right? Slavery, segregation, and oppression went the way of Manifest Destiny...Right?

Wrong. Just look around you, Segregation is no longer relaxing. In fact it's intensifying. All the groups are fortifying their positions and fragmenting into exceedingly exclusive groupings. Where there used to be the Whites, the Blacks, the Asians, and the Middle Easterners; Now there's the English, the Canadians, the "Real" Americans, the new immigrants, the Germans, the Polish, the French, the Russians...wait, what? Isn't the point of coming to America to de-segregate? Isn't the point to give up the old prejudices of the past? Why do people keep holding onto the same exclusive attitudes that define the nations they are supposedly trying to escape? Why is it so hard for them to come to terms with the idea that America is supposed to be a place where equality can truly be experienced?

For my part, I am just amazed that with the level of continued hate and fear that pervades the atmosphere throughout every square inch of the country that people outside of it can still be deluded into believing that we've somehow risen above the old prejudices and hatreds of the past. The thing they still have yet to realize is that Americans, despite all their claims to greatness, are still just people, nothing more and nothing less. They are foolish and frightened by anything that is not exactly like themselves.

Again coming only from myself, I have no answer as to why America is held in such high regard throughout the world, while in contrast America itself continues to draw increasingly closer to complete segregation of personages. When will the fear end? Why can't we accept one another? When will we be able to simply be who we are, and present that to the world in honest disclosure? I honestly don't know but sincerely hope it is soon, so that I can stop being embarrassed by the global misconception of my country.

(ps. I realize that I left out a lot of races in this post, so for the record "I AM NOT RACIST!!!!" I simply didn't have the time or the energy to research and list them all on this post. Also for the 75% of you who read this and were offended when I referred to the "African American" population as black, get over it. If the Africans themselves prefer to be called such over some ridiculous PC moniker, why should Americans be so proud and stuck up as to think themselves worthy of special recognition.)

Starting things off

Okay, so to state the obvious and probably the inordinately redundant, I am starting a blog! WOOHOO!!! (cheers and whistles from the peanut gallery) So anyway, a bit about me to help you make up your mind about whether you want to read anything else I write. First off, I am a 19 (almost 20) year old kid. I say kid because I refuse to be set into the demographic of "College Age Young Adults" I may be the exact carbon copy of every other person on the planet in my age group, I just can't seem to justify joining in with the rest of the group even if it's just out of pure stubbornness.

Also, I am a highly religious young man, who is heavily involved with his church as well as being an aspiring missionary. I feel it is necessary to mention this as this background will most definitely be a heavy influence on my writings and opinions.

I am also a full-time college student, though this is a temporary situation and will be remedied as quickly as scholastically possible.

On top of all this I am also a business owner. Obviously this also takes up a significant amount of my time, but hey, we've all got to earn a living.

I am also an avid photographer, and should the opportunity arise in postings, will probably include a few of my photos in this blog.

Of course in order for this to be a complete welcome post, I should mention that I am a compulsive and incurable procrastinator. I am trying to correct this, but no promises on consistent and predictable posts from here on out.

Anyway folks thanks for giving this a quick browse, and I hope we'll all have some fun.

Sasquatch