An American Heart: Part 2

My own American Heart has been a bit fractured lately.  One part has been extraordinarily busy, busy, busy.  And to be honest I have been grateful to have those distractions to keep me from feeling the full weight of the other part of my heart that has been so deeply sad, even despite all the things that I know I should be more than grateful for.

So today I will share with you from both sides of my own American Heart.

First- here are some other fun shots from our Memorial Day spent at the Palm Springs Air Museum:

I know some people who would really like a ceiling fan that looked like this!

Here are some fine examples of beautiful pin-up style lovelies, painted by Santiago "Sant" Godinez :

We got to watch 'Pretty Polly' fly that day.

On our way out of the museum we saw this sign:

Visiting this flying WWII air museum on Memorial Day gave me an even stronger appreciation for those who serve.

 And as for that other side of my American heart...  I will share with you a couple of videos that have given me pause lately.  I have been sad to see what is becoming of my beloved America and yet I have hope when I see things like this:



And this:



These are some of the things that have been on my heart, lately.  How about you?

Anecdotal Truths- Real Journalism?

The other day, while shopping for a client, I witnessed this:

You can see and count 9 people in the line here for returns.  What you don't see is that since I was feeling a little weird about having people notice that I was taking their picture in the local hardware warehouse I managed to cut off the right edge of the photo where there is actually a second lit up 'returns' desk with 3 more people waiting near it.  (Yes, I do always have a small camera in my purse at all times.)

And then when I had the items I needed to purchase and headed to the self check area, I also witnessed this:

Again with my worry that people might feel weird being photographed while shopping and by this time my true desire to honestly portray what I had seen to anyone I might show these photos to, I managed to blur the scene quite badly. 

What I was trying to get here is the fact that there is only one woman in the self check area.  And this while there are 12 people in the 'returns' line.  I am kicking myself for not also photographing the rest of the check out area, manned by a couple of staff people. You'll have to take my word for it that there was no one else making any purchases in that area either. 

Maybe I'll be willing to take more heat in the future for wielding a camera in public if I want to do any more of this 'reporting' type stuff.  We'll see...

What I do know is that I asked the checker seen in this photo what was up with the long line at the return area and the fact that hardly anyone was in the store to make a purchase.  After she got over her initial obvious worry that I was some 'investigator' from corporate, she managed to give me some interesting info. 

The checker said that there is always some overspending from Christmas that turns into 'regret returning' after the first of the year.  But then she said that this year was worse than ever.

I thanked her for the information, letting her know that I was just a curious person.  I honestly thought at the time that I would only be using the pictures to show my husband and maybe a few friends what I had witnessed on that Tuesday afternoon.

But something has been telling me that I should share what I saw here.  And next time I see something like this I will ask more questions- like how many days had this been going on?  or how about, has there been an uptick in theft in the store?

I've always been fairly observant and I am interested in learning more about the truth of what is going on with our economy since I do not see any good information available out there right now.  I just know that it feels like the American people are being lied to and there are worse things than being seen as a nut job with a camera.

Clarification

As my previous post indicated, I have been mulling some things over.

Image by pinkblue at freedigitalphotos.net

 

I agree with most of you, that there is not a whole lot that I can personally do to change anyone's mind about politics and where this country is headed.  I can inform should I choose to do so.  I can answer questions if they are asked in a real way- not the good old 'let's back the stupid idiot who actually thinks I care about their viewpoints into a corner and rip them to shreds' way that I have found only liberals have mastered.

I should probably not get into it too deeply with those (that I am mostly surrounded by) on the left because it will only serve to hurt my sensibilities and I will not have accomplished much of anything.  Sad, but true...

I had pretty much decided with the New Year that I would try hard to right things in my life that I would like to change and let go of some more of the things that I cannot change no matter how hard I try-  including stopping my bad habit of sitting back and taking it way too often when I am abused by leftist people who feel completely justified in their lack of understanding of anyone who doesn't think exactly as they do.  Not to mention their disgusted reactions when you bother to inform them that you are one of 'those people' who might actually have another opinion.

It is true that until the crap hits the fan and their pocket books, I am only hurting myself by trying to save anyone from anything.  Hmmm... sounds a lot like what I did with my sister for years.  Not productive at any rate.  It's time to stop beating my head against the wall and all that....

So, in the interest of being honest I want to clarify something that has not come across clearly.  I think this happened because I have let the current political climate get to me and am afraid of making anyone feel bad or not like me because I have become one of those 'evil rich people'.  While I am neither evil or rich (yet- we will certainly be proud of what we have accomplished when the day comes that we can actually cop to being rich, as we believe that those who work hard enough to become rich are fulfilling the American dream and will use the money and influence they have to help others fulfill that dream as well.) I think that in today's USA the two- being evil &/or rich, seem to be interchangeable and that is just so damn sad.  My husband saw a bumper sticker proclaiming:  We are the 99% and he asked me if he should get one that reads:  I am not an NBA basketball star.  He feels as if we celebrate mediocrity today as if it is some badge of honor.  Unfortunately, I think he's right on.

Anyway.... without further ado, I shall explain. 

I Do NOT live in California.  My husband and I recently purchased a condo in Palm Springs, CA so that we can escape on a more regular basis from the nasty weather that basically defines the Pacific Northwest.  We will be lucky to be able to use our Palm Springs place for 8 weeks out of the year.  We also saw the unique opportunity that is today's lousy housing market as hopefully a one time chance for us to get into the Palm Springs market at the entry level. 

We do see California as the messed up place that it is.  My husband actually coined the phrase San Fran Sewer to describe how he feels about San Francisco and what it has become because of liberal policies.  HOWEVER, I must tell you that as for Palm Springs it serves as a little oasis in the desert when it comes to California politics.  It is truly a 50/50 split much more so than the western part of the northwest where we are actually residents.  I know that may seem shocking.  We have also noticed that our bills from the PS condo contain many less frivolous taxes and lower rates for utilities than here at home! 

Until you have lived in the Seattle area you cannot understand the level of militant liberalism that permeates this place.  (I actually had an interesting conversation at a party the other night about how much many of us agreed that Seattle will eventually ban cars and how we all had experienced having a pedestrian bang on some part of our car because they didn't like how we were in their way!)  Yes, California does deserve the bad reputation they have, but honestly in Palm Springs it is such a unique cross of retirees and young trendy people.  It is hard to describe and feels pretty magical.  Hence, our decision to actually purchase a second home there.  That and the 350 days a year of sun- it really does this woman who is allergic to trees and mold/mildew a whole lot of good!

And until I can get to Texas, Palm Springs is the best and closest thing I can do for sun and sanity!  That and keeping up with my conservative groups (-our closest one had to join with the next county as it went under due to lack of interest; we're lucky to see a group of 50 who will admit publicly to being non-liberal around here!) and continuing to help with local political campaigns- all part of my plan to ward off the crazy!

Thanks for all the interest in my questions and thanks for all the suggestions.  I so appreciate it.  While I am worried about the future, I know I can never give up.

What Do I Do?!

This is a serious question.  I am not kidding here.

I'm going to be upfront and honest and tell you right off the bat that I feel as if our current president is the most divisive person to have ever held the office- at least what I know of in my life time of very nearly 39 years.

So with that knowledge of where I am coming from, you could easily say that my view is biased.  I would say that is a fair perception as I believe we are all biased in one direction or another.

Dealing with that innate personal political bias has become extremely uncomfortable for me lately.

As I have mentioned before, I am literally surrounded by very liberal people.  Almost no one that I see or talk to on a regular basis is conservative in any way. 

Yes, I have been doing some soul searching about why this is so.....

All of that being said, I have found that with recent events I am now not only disgusted with the political policies of the left that I see so profoundly stealing my freedoms and ruining the country that I love so much, but I am actually starting to find the people that celebrate these developments to be completely repulsive as well.

Big questions swirl around in my head. 
1)  Questions about why I have been forced on several occasions to try and defend my pro-life stance. 
I have actually been ridiculed in group settings because I simply cannot think of a good enough reason to kill any unborn human being. 
2)  Questions about why there are not more people who think that if you earned it, you ought to be able to keep most of it.  I know so many people who are living off the government in one way or another and I am just sickened by how sad it is that these people will never rise to their full potential.
3)  Questions about what it means to believe in 'the American way'.  If the American way is disappearing, then what is the right place for me?!

I feel as if continuing to expose myself to people who I feel are abusive to my senses is wrong for me.  And yet I don't see myself as some crazy person who wants to be isolated from society. 

If I were somewhere that people were more representative of the feelings of the American people- say more of a 50/50 split, I could at least feel safe to express myself without coming off as constantly defensive.  Don't get me wrong, I have gotten pretty good at getting people to think a bit- even liberals on occasion!  But I am growing very weary of feeling like the only one in the room that sees what's going on with the current administration. 

While it's true that this has never been a perfect country, I really do believe that things are getting worse.  And I want to be around people that are part of the solution, not those who celebrate the demise and what they might get out of it for themselves.

So I ask:
Is it time for me to move on from those who have consistently been unable to hear anything other than what they want to hear?  Is it still important to try to change minds, even those you don't think can ever be changed?  Is it more productive to spend my time with people I think will be part of a solution, rather than be fooled by the demise?

I won't pretend that a person can ever feel connected to everyone on the same level and I know that we must all deal with people of all types and opinions.  I guess I am just wanting to know how much exposure is enough?!  And what should the purpose of that exposure be?!