The Academy of Country Music Awards show was televised last night.
Great show as always.
Country music is "real." Country music singers and musicians are "real."
Yeah... no doubt many of these folks have their problems just as any celebrity group - be it rappers or rockers or Hollywood actors - does.
That said... while the Oscars and the Grammy Awards often showcase individuals - and behavior - which I deem reprehensible, when I listen to country... when I watch country music award shows such as last night's ACMAs... I see people I admire and respect.
Do I "know" these people? No. No more than I know any celebrity.
Do I automatically feel contempt for most "artists" other than country "artists?" Nope.
But if one were to watch an Oscars presentation at random from the last 10 years or so and then watch the ACMAs... you'd understand what I'm trying to get across.
Country music makes me think there might... just might... be a chance to save this nation.
These people... their songs... they represent my America - even though I was raised in the suburbs of New York City and spent my undergraduate college years in Boston and London.
I often get emotional listening to country music.
There's one particular song - a contemporary country hit which I've used before as a "newsbites theme song" - I'd like to direct your attention to.
The name of the song... "Home."
The artist... Dierks Bentley.
The lyric I focus upon...
Red, how the blood ran red
And we laid our dead in sacred ground
Just think, wonder what they think
If they could see us now
And we laid our dead in sacred ground
Just think, wonder what they think
If they could see us now
Unfortunately...
My answer is...
"They" would feel contempt for us - perhaps hatred. Certainly anger. Disappointment? That word doesn't begin to describe just how badly we've betrayed our Founders and those who over the centuries have given their all to bequeath us the nation we're currently destroying.
"They" would consider us selfish, lazy, lacking in honor and morals.
"They" would weep at what large parts of America have become.
Imagine if you could transport a company of WW-2 soldiers in the blink of an eye from 1942 Guadalcanal or 1943 North Africa or 1944 Normandy to 2012 Detroit.
Imagine what such men would think of modern day Philadelphia or the teeming ghettos surrounding our nation's capital of Washington D.C.
What would the Founders, or indeed any generation which came of age prior to the Nixon era, think of a modern American federal government which borrows 43-cents out of every dollar spent on operating expenses while our all-volunteer military fights - but not to win - and dies in Afghanistan... in the 11th year of that "conflict."
What would the Founders think of ObamaCare? Hell... what would they think of Wickard v. Filburn...?!?!
Think of present-day America... think of our illegitimacy rates... our food stamp rolls... "children" of 26 years of age on their parent's health insurance... 99 weeks of unemployment... crony capitalism... bailouts...
Yes... unfortunately... I'm pretty sure I know what "they" would think.
Folks... it's gonna take more than "patriotic lyrics" to save this nation.
Recognizing what we've become and vowing to change... that's what's necessary. That's the first step.
2 comments:
WOW...I'm going to have to start paying more attention to your work Bill. This is your most powerful to date! Yeah, I feel the same way about Country...and just pray it never sells its soul. Already the lines are beginning to blur a bit for me...but you're dead on about the spirit of last night's show compared to the Grammys!! And a beautiful tie-in to the lyrics in just how shamefully we are letting them down. Great job!!
Thanks, Chip, I really appreciate it.
I wasn't fishing for compliments; but I knew that as a singer/songwriter as well as a fellow conservative blogger that this particular post of mine with resonate with you and perhaps with your regulars at http://shutupnsing.wordpress.com/
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