Growing up in pre-Ritalin America, I was fortunate to have several wonderful elementary and high school teachers. They figured out that when I became disruptive in class that sending me to the library rather than the Principle's Office was a much more efficient method of controlling my hyperactive exhuberance. The librarian was scarier by far than the principle and the library was interesting and kept me quiet. I gained a passion for the written word.
I have scribbled stories since I was in the 3rd grade. I loved graduate school because of the prodigious amounts of required reading and the endless, lengthy scholarly papers that had to be written. When I was seventeen I read Herman Wouk's Youngblood Hawk. I knew right then that I would never be a writer if it meant living in a walk up, cold water flat in a tenement in New York City. Nor, like Louis L'Amour, could I sit in the middle of Sunset Boulevard with a typewriter and successfully write. Nonetheless, I continued to write prose and poetry and managed to get a few things published.
In 2006 I attended a Writing the Rockies Seminar in Gunnison, Colorado. Among a distinguished panel of instructors was poet Laurie Wagner Buyers and her significant other, author WC Jameson. Laurie's poetry is the most moving I have ever read and she and WC both made a great impression on me. With the exception of Robert Service, I had never much liked poetry until I read Laurie's. I have read three volumes of her poetry and it is the stuff of life in the modern west that has been lived, not imagined. I recommend her work to folks that like their poetry emotionally raw and can appreciate a talent for word craft that is breathtaking.
The seminar was a humbling experience. I found myself in the presence of real literary talent and I quickly realized that while my life had given me lots of great stories, I lacked the talent, sensitivity to inclusiveness and, most of all, the necessary qualities of subservience to political correctness to be successful in the contemporary world of publishing.
In my conceit that I might have something to offer in my writings, I sent a packet of my work to Ms. Buyers for review. During the seminar, the most memorable thing said to us was that in writing, you must "open a vein and let the blood flow." I queried her about this, and she responded by telling me that a writer should "write from the heart" and not worry about the audience. I was encouraged because my experiences with artistic and academic types has been that they are overwhelmingly of a liberal Progressive frame of mind. Their ideas are usually antithetical to my traditional view of America and pre-1960 American values. I was disappointed but not really surprised when I received Laurie's comments back on my writings.
The technical deficiencies she pointed out were excellent and helpful, but, to my bewilderment, she pointed out the lack of political correctness in some of my expressions, particularly in a story about training a Morgan mare entitled "The Bag Lady" that had been published some years before. Well, what the hell? Which is it? "Let the blood flow" or be politically correct?
Those of us from the "old school" growing up in the 1950s when we, as a people and a nation, were filled with hope, knew where we were going, knew who we were, and we recognized that while all humans may be equal in the eyes of the Almighty, nevertheless, we also had the common sense to recognize that there were differences in the quality and ability of people and cultures just as there were differences in the quality of horses. More importantly, we still believed in the principles of the Founding Fathers and did not have to go into therapy for guilt over our defense of a way of life and a set of values that had made us the greatest and most powerful nation on earth. We were the envy of the entire world. We must have been doing
something right.
We have departed from our origins, and for those of us that know the difference, it is obvious that we are on an express elevator to hell. Our liberties have been embezzled, camouflaged in the rhetoric of tolerance, diversity and inclusiveness. The tragedy of the phenomenon of political correctness is reflected in the historically unimaginable censorship being imposed upon the American people in the form of "progressive" standards of art, social responsibility, and education that has crept into the very fabric of our national lives. Traditional liberties are being stripped from us as we are being told what we can say, how our facial expressions are grounds for being subjected to body searches at airports, what sorts of heretofore deviant behavior we are expected to not merely tolerate but to embrace, and what demographics we must like. Failure to accept as equal all forms of behavior puts us at risk of civil or even criminal sanctions. Look at what can happen to you in Colorado:
If we dare to independently express ourselves in a manner not considered appropriate by the progressive elitists that run this damn country we may find ourselves the target of scrutiny by the thought police, charged with hate crimes or terrorism. The freedoms so dearly paid for through the last 200 years have been eviscerated of their real meaning. Our Founding Fathers would start a new revolution if they saw what has become of us today.
With the exception of those actions considered mala en se, I encourage civilized dissent. However, I'll be damned if I will yield to the extortion of political correctness imposed for the advancement of the liberty stifling agendas of the progressive left. If that is what it takes to be published, the hell with it.
As a professor, despised by the hairy-legged, radical Marxist feminists that were in the majority in my department, I urged my students to adopt the following critical thinking standard: On issues of social and political policy, have an attitude of "convince me". If presented with overwhelming evidence and a compelling argument to a position or sentiment, change your mind. However, real dissent, especially that based upon traditional American values and the Judeo-Christian tradition are not permitted in most academic environments or in the social and political policy arenas. It seems that most of America today, and especially the generations born after the 1950s, have no idea of what real freedom means. They don't miss it because they have never known it. They are quite happy with cell phones, ipods, and the endless drivel of feel good politics and social activism. The chains of slavery rest easy on their shoulders. No more pitiful statement can be made about a people that have traded the priceless birthright of individual liberty for the illusion of security. The pathetic bastards are too stupid to realize they now have neither liberty nor security.
Far Rider
See to your weapons and stand to your horses
2 comments:
It's refreshing to hear someone finally calling it like it really is for a change. People are brainwashed into thinking that they shouldn't complain so instead of calling it like they should see it, they continue to compromise and make excuses while watching the whole country go into the crapper. People need to understand that complaints are good as long as we're willing to back those complaints to make things better.
I just finished reading Across the High Divide by Laurie Wagner Buyer. It is an amazing collection of poems that stirs the soul and array of emotions. She writes probably the best poetry I've ever read. I like her more lengthy poems best. She has a passion for writing about how passionately she's lived life. I know I'll enjoy reading more of her work.
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