Hey, Fellow Americans, REMEMBER WHEN ...?

[NanceGreggs]

REMEMBER WHEN you displayed your flag on the front porch on the 4th of July, and you didn’t have to worry about whether it would be misinterpreted as support for a corrupt president and his administration?

REMEMBER WHEN ‘Support the Troops’ meant equipping our military with everything necessary for battle, instead of just being a catchy phrase that looked good on a bumper-sticker?

REMEMBER WHEN your tax dollars paid for things like improved education and social programs, instead of making Halliburton shareholders millionaires?

REMEMBER WHEN you watched movies about WWII, and it was the enemy who tortured captured American soldiers, instead of American soldiers torturing the people they’d allegedly ‘liberated’?

REMEMBER WHEN you heard something on the TV news or read something in a newspaper, and you didn’t have to go to the internet to find out just how much of it was fact, and how much of it was ‘spin’?

REMEMBER WHEN a politician was caught with his hand in the cookie jar and he resigned in disgrace, instead of excusing his own behaviour by claiming that his political opponents were equally as guilty of wrongdoing?

REMEMBER WHEN ‘Made in the USA’ labels on products were the norm, and not a total oddity?

REMEMBER WHEN ‘Made in the USA’ labels were actually made in the USA?

REMEMBER WHEN you hitchhiked through Europe as a teenager, and you DIDN’T have to replace the American flag on your knapsack with a Canadian flag in order to be a welcomed guest in a foreign country?

REMEMBER WHEN organized crime figures had to make phone calls from the corner phone booth, because they were the only people who had to worry about wire-taps?

REMEMBER WHEN you were considered to be a worker of value because you were an American with a good work ethic, and not because you were a Pakistani or an Indian who would do the same job ‘on the cheap’?

REMEMBER WHEN telling a fellow politician on the floor of the House to ‘go f*ck himself’ was considered behaviour unbecoming an elected official, instead of being accepted as the way a Vice President behaves himself?

REMEMBER WHEN you could pretty well count on the fact that if the president said it, it was based on sound intelligence and was probably true?

REMEMBER WHEN your president spoke in public, and his words weren’t the punch-line to late night TV-show jokes?

REMEMBER WHEN you could rely on your elected representatives to put your interests ahead of the corporations that filled their campaign coffers, or the lobbyists who gave them great basketball tickets?

REMEMBER WHEN you didn’t even KNOW what religion the people you voted for were, because it didn’t really matter? Remember when you didn’t know what party your neighbour belonged to, because that didn’t really matter either?

REMEMBER WHEN the pension you’d worked for your whole life wasn’t in danger of being wiped out by corrupt CEOs, assisted by respected accounting firms that made that corruption almost impossible to detect?

REMEMBER WHEN you could brag that as an American, you were guaranteed things like free speech and due process of law, without checking the nightly news to see whether those rights were still in effect?

REMEMBER WHEN the president upheld the law of the land, instead of coming up with ‘legal loopholes’ to support the idea that he’s above the law?

REMEMBER WHEN you could say, “I’m a proud American,” without qualifying it with a list of all of the things your government is doing that you’re not exactly proud of?

REMEMBER WHEN you saw news stories about people so poor they had to beg on the streets in order to feed their children, and you shook your head in disgust and thought, “What kind of uncivilized country would allow that to happen,” because it wasn’t your own country?

REMEMBER WHEN you actually thought that the people in charge of running your country were smarter than you were?

REMEMBER WHEN your parents worked all their lives to ensure you a better life, instead of worrying about how bad the life they’d be leaving their children might be?

REMEMBER WHEN the importance of clean drinking water and breathable air were unquestionable mandates, and not some crazy hippie agenda to be weighed against corporate profits?

REMEMBER WHEN questioning your government’s policies was seen as ‘participating in the process’, and not ‘giving aid and comfort to the enemy’?

REMEMBER WHEN the ‘enemy’ was a country or military force that posed a threat to American democracy, and not a nation of innocent civilians who whose destruction was dismissible as ‘collateral damage’?

REMEMBER WHEN your country went to war based on facts beforehand, instead of constantly-changing suppositions after-the-fact?

REMEMBER WHEN ‘patriotism’ was judged by your words and actions, and not by whether you were a member of the party currently in power?

REMEMBER WHEN the ‘American Dream’ was attainable through diligence and hard work, and not the luck of the ‘outsourcing’ draw?

REMEMBER WHEN profitable corporations were content with simple tax dodges, and didn’t have to have government subsidies as part of the bargain?

REMEMBER WHEN incredibly wealthy Americans bragged about their philanthropic work, instead of bragging about their tax cuts?

REMEMBER WHEN you went to the polls and voted, and didn’t have to rush home and watch the news in order to find out if your vote was counted?

REMEMBER WHEN the election of a president was considered the result of democracy in action, and not the result of Diebold executives doing the job they were expected to do?

REMEMBER WHEN you sang ‘God Bless America’ as a kid, and never thought you’d grow up to wonder if, in view of your country’s actions, asking God’s blessing was asking a bit too much?

I REMEMBER WHEN … and I wonder if these ideas will become ancient history by the time those of us old enough to recall them are dead and gone.

You might want to print this, and pass it down to your children. It could be worth a fair buck on ‘Antiques Roadshow’ someday – an odd document that can’t be verified as authentic, because the memories it conjures up are just too bizarre to be accepted as ever having been fact.

[xray s]

1. and

REMEMBER WHEN the Federal Government had a special commission to investigate war profiteering and fraud because it considered an outrage that corporations would try to take advantage of our men fighting and dying for our country?

[DanCa]

2. K&R

Great Post Great Post!

[TomInTib]

3. Thank you. This is a keeper and I am sending it everywhere.

[hwmnbn]

4. Yep, I remember ......

Thanks for such an evocative post. It begins to show the depth of all we've lost under this administration. It is heartbreaking and maddening. K&R and will distribute.

[AuntiBush]

5. Yeah. It was a mere 5 1/2 years back...

Seems like only yesterday. Whoa. It was.

Reading my mind. Oh, the good old days. Think I will print this one out and show it every darn person I bang into. Thank you!

[Canuckistanian]

6. I remember

As a Canadian, I remember your life being that way. I could see it in the TV shows that came from Buffalo, NY.

I could see the dedication to an ideal, an ideal that got a president to resign because of malfeasance.

And ideal that caused a nation (and the world) to rally behind a national tragedy (9/11).

And I mourn for that ideal again.

[NanceGreggs]

16. With the poetry of your words, I am reminded ...

... that others than my countrymen are aware and appalled by what is happening.

With the sharing of your thoughts, I am reminded that as an American living in Canada, I am surrounded with my like-minded global citizens.

Your words moved me more than I can artfully express.

Thanks, Canuckistanian.

[alittlelark]

7. I remember... and MOURN

I demand that innocence to be returned for MY children.

No more BS..... end of story. Yeah.

[fooj]

8. K&R!

Peace.

[Oversea Visitor]

9. Someone destroy the Americans Dream

and it wasnt OBL or Saddam

[tom_paine]

10. K & R

[JeffR]

11. If Thoreau were alive today

He would have written this. It voices the real anger people have for what has happened and is happening still. An anger that no amount of pundit putdowns and dyspeptic displays of transparently phony outrage from the other side of the aisle will mitigate, or hinder.

We're huddled in a hard rain, amid the thunder of pilfering Pharisees bleating from their tinplated telegenic pulpits or lying into a TV camera from a burgundy, flag-bedecked office deep inside the Beltway.

A greasy mixture of Jesus-by-Numbers sanctimony, reptilian xenophobia, and an insatiable instinct for the main chance, and damn the consequences. Braying hycpocritical sleetstorms of blather, bile and outright lies from a crowd whose scabrous hands on America's throat must be pried off finger by cold finger.

It's time for an American Revolution, of the mind. It's time, at last, for action on a scale not seen in this country for forty years.

Is America to be guided by a living, endlessly honed Constitution, and laws that help Americans have better lives, better communities? Or is that Constitution fated to remain a "goddamn piece of paper", a snotrag for these button-down fascistas?

A critical mass is reached, and America will come through battered but wiser. And forty years from now, may few of us remember this sinkhole of crime and moral degeneracy, this aching trek through a deepening swamp, this carnival of the demons. May we age, or die, remembering how good were the times after these. Those times are coming. We can get there.

[NanceGreggs]

12. I hope we CAN get there ...

... and it will be a hollow victory if we don't all get there together --you and I, and we as a nation.

[AusGail]

13. Remember when

I hope the Democrats employ you to write their commercials when the election campaign starts. Bombard the public with your material and you will be on a winner.

[NanceGreggs]

17. Hey, AusGail!!!

On edit: Truth be told, AusGail, I can't think of anything I'd rather do.

For anyone who's listening (or reading), my meager talents are FREE to a good Democratic home ...

[babylonsister]

14. My, you are full of it, aren't ya, NancyGreggs?! I'm so glad I

saw this and will certainly pass it on! You do have a way with words!

[NanceGreggs]

15. Well, you've got this coming to ya, BabylonSister ...

...

[Mythsaje]

18. Great job, Nance...

You're on a roll lately, while I've been petering out. Either that or my change in schedule is leaving me unable to post during the times when people who know my stuff are around to notice.

[The Wizard]

19. Thanks for the Memories

Remember what it was like before the Machiavellian Josef Goebbels, Karl Rove, turned political discourse into a bloodsport. Remember what it was like before it was you're either with the Administration or be declared an enemy of the state, even if you're a disabled veteran. Remember when fascists wore brown shirts and jack boots. Remember when the President actually had a memory.

[newyawker99]

32. Hi The Wizard!!

Welcome to DU!!

[The Wizard]

59. Thank Zeus I'm a Democrat

Been coming here daily since The Bush jihad launched its immoral invasion while surrendering to bin Laden. The Administration's response to "They hate us for our freedoms" is to reduce the Constitution, that many of us defended with our lives, to toilet paper. It's not a god damned piece of paper to me.
Thank Zeus I'm a Democrat

[HughBeaumont]

20. I've already spread the word

Thank you for the memories.

[drm604]

21. Are you releasing this to the public domain?

Are we free to use this? Because it's excellent! Recommended.

[NanceGreggs]

30. As always ...

Everyone should feel free to spread this around, if you think it's of value.

I would only ask that if you cross-post this on other websites, there be an attribution to myself as the author, and to DEMOCRATIC UNDERGROUND as the original publisher of the piece.

[blondeatlast]

22. Excellent! If I may add: Remember when the Press was hungry and hardworkin

and took their responsibility as one of the pillars of a strong democracy VERY seriously.

I won't see a lot of what I remember, but I am raising a son who will work towards restoring the promise of a strong democracy and a strong and inspired Nation.

Very inspiring--thank you for some wonderful words!

K&R.

[minglewood]

36. the press

and I remember when we felt sorry for the Russians because their newspaper, Pravda ("The Truth"), was so full of bogus propaganda that most Russians felt it was best used as toilet paper.

[ncrainbowgrrl]

44. SO true. (Welcome to DU, minglewood!)

[liberal N proud]

23. Excellent,

I will share this with everyone regardless of their political affiliation.

[Greylyn58]

24. Wow...I'm feeling all nostalgic

and totally sick at heart because of the utter corruption that has occurred in just the last 6 years.

I just pray that we haven't lost everything you listed forever because that would be criminal indeed.

[BR_Parkway]

25. I do remember, and I wish I could say you are wrong, but sadly, I can't

it's all too true.

[chimpymustgo]

26. Those were the days my friend. We thought they'd never end...

Great post. I hope everyone sends it far and wide (especially to Freeperland).

K&R

[Bridget Burke]

27. Good work--but one tiny correction.

You did not identify the jobs done by Pakistanis or Indians as "outsourced." We have plenty of Pakistanis & Indians over here who have excellent work ethics. And they are not shy about asking for higher wages. In fact, many are entrepreneurs--who work for nobody.

[NanceGreggs]

29. It never occurred to me that that paragraph ...

... would be interpreted that way - but obviously it has been. I thought the outsourcing angle was obvious.

I apologize to anyone I may have inadvertently offended.

I guess it never occurred to me because I live in Toronto, a city with a very large Indian and Pakistani community, and if all of the businesses they owned here closed down tomorrow, the city would be a virtual ghost town!

[Bridget Burke]

31. That was only a tiny flaw....

Houston has a pretty good supply of Indians & Pakistanis, as well.

I know that American history is not as blameless as we were taught in school. But, in some sense, we were often "the good guys."

That's been lost.

[Bob K]

28. Remember when.....

.... we elected folks to do the people's work in their official capacity and we'd leave their personal affairs (lives) up to them?

[ClintonTyree]

33. All courtesy of Mr. "I'm a uniter, not a divider".

Yes, I DO remember all of those things, and more. I'm a little older than most here at DU and the change this country has gone through in the last 40 years is amazing. I remember never locking the house up during the day, at night and even if you went away for a short time.
An Eisenhower Republican would be a "far left loony" now. Yes, I remember. And I lay most of the blame for these alterations on the Republican party who are much more concerned about themselves than the good of the whole. Selfishness, Republicans have turned it into a faux virtue. Bastards!

[Bozita]

34. Best piece I've read in a month!

Thank you.

[Rainscents]

35. K & R !!!

[Angry Swede]

37. If you mistook

the flag on my porch on the 4th for support for a corrupt president and his administration you were probably running from my Viszla. It's that Paccouli smell, we actually train her to go after it.

"REMEMBER WHEN you actually thought that the people in charge of running your country were smarter than you were?"
-Hah! We don't have egos! We're Americans!

What a bunch of malarkey.

[NanceGreggs]

38. Welcome to DU, Angry Swede ...

... I took the time to look at your DU profile, and was interested to see that listed as your Hobby was: "Uh...everything this site deplores"

BTW, the inclusion of "uh" was totally unnecessary. When people like you speak, the "uhs, duhs, and dohs" are a given.

[JeffR]

39. That's right Swede

We'll all be better off if the president is even dumber than you. That'll teach them terrorists.

[JeffR]

40. Forgot to add, Welcome to DU

Don't let rationality hit your ass on the way out.

[byronius]

41. Viszla. And you quote Heinein like he's a right-winger. Ah, gotcha.

I feel sorry for your poor dog. Dude! Sweden's a great place, a Socialist Paradise. You must be on the run, then. And confused. Very.

[byronius]

42. Oh, yeah. Welcome to DU, Captain Sweezle Peanut.

You need some Pachouli, I think, though. Some of the good stuff.

[yewberry]

43. That's just sad.

"If you mistook the flag on my porch on the 4th for support for a corrupt president and his administration you were probably running from my Viszla."

Your "if-then" statement does not make any kind of sense at all.


Please, DUers, don't let the semi-literate few affect your view of our lovely city. We're not all dimwits.

[Duncan Grant]

46. They're right-wing radicals who don't know how to govern.

Enjoy your stay...

[Blue Belle]

57. Why so angry swede?

Did you forget why we display our flag on the Fourth of July in the first place? Do you forget WHY our forefathers revolted? Why they fought and died? If you do remember... then why are you so hot to give W the Monarchy back? If you do remember... why bother even having a flag? You obviously don't believe in the principles of Democracy behind that symbol.

[LoKnLoD]

45. Wow...

just wow, fantastic post .

[Duncan Grant]

47. The next time you throw a dinner party, can I come?

Better still, come to my place and meet my friends - we'd have a blast. Beautifully done, Nance.

[NanceGreggs]

52. Of course you can!

I'm in Toronto, though, so it will be a loooooong trip!

As for me, if I'm ever in San Fran, I'm going to hold you to that invitation!

[Oldtimeralso]

48. Great Job

Remember when Ike warned us about the military-industrial complex

[WmDavid52]

49. Wonderful message..

I just wanted thank you for a great, truthful and honest message.

Remember... When the "reds" were communists of the USSR?

[Heywood J]

50. If I had the posts,

I'd recommend that. It's good work. Thanks for releasing that to us, I wonder what a poster-sized print is worth to have made... Something eye-catchingly big.

[NanceGreggs]

51. Thanks, Heywoodj!

And Welcome to DU!

[Heywood J]

53. Thanks!

Thanks for the welcome.

It's odd, I'm actually just down the 401 from you, apparently. I wonder how many more of us there are here.

[NanceGreggs]

55. I've come across posters from Ottawa and Oakville ...

... where are you?

[Uncle Joe]

54. Most excellent, thanks for posting NanceGreggs!

[0007]

56. bttft

[Imagevision]

58. Rove Cheney Wolfowitz Rumsfeld Rice Ashcroft, need I say more?