Friday, July 08, 2005

America! America!

I don't know if I will post to this blog again before I stay in some internet-equipped hotel in California next week. I will be on the road for an entire month, exploring California, Arizona and Utah with my family. My laptop will accompany me and whenever I can hook up to the internet in our travels, I will catch up on my email and will hopefully do some blog posting. Isn't technology great?

I love the United States. I have been there many times, to many states, but have never been to the three states we are visiting this time. It will be fun. Americans are open, friendly and helpful, and I admire their spirit. I am saddened that they, like the rest of the world, are being lured by the empty promise of socialism and that, at least in part due to a desire for security and law and order, America is becoming yet another police state. Consider R.I.C.O., the Patriot Act, and increasing gun control as evidence. I had always thought of the United States as the last great bulwark against the pervasive idiocy of omnipotent government. I was wrong. It's not the American people themselves, mind you. They are guilty only of trusting what they hear. They believe what they are told. Their politicians are leading them down the proverbial garden path, where they will be violated and discarded. Screwed.

But the Americans will recover. The can-do spirit is alive and well in the individual American Joe and Josephine and they will overcome and triumph. But there will be tough political and economic times ahead in the United States. And when America sneezes, we all catch cold.

I will enjoy our time in the United States. I hope that I will be able to return again and again. There is still so much I want to see. There is still so much I want to say. I want to tell Americans I meet that there is at least one person, one family in fact, who doesn't hate them.

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness.

America! America!
God mend thine ev'ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law.

See you soon.

4 comments:

  1. HAVE SUPER AMAZING FUN!! I love California!

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  2. Hi there,

    I googled the name of a long lost friend, Lisa Pedde, and I came upon your "Pedde" site. Not sure if this is the same person. We went to camp together and various youth retreats as teenagers in the 80's before she and her family moved to Texas from Bolton Ontario. Just trying to re connect.
    My name is Karen Chapple. My family was from Ottawa Ontario Canada. If this is the same red haired Lisa, please pass on my name and e-mail addy to her.
    Thanks,
    Karen Chapple
    LMeichenbaum@rogers.com

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  3. Hi Seig

    We have all just finished reading about your adventure and I must say we all laughed out loud. If you can imagine first Ann read it and laughed then Lori and I and then Wendy. Thank you for the entertainment. We are wondering if the women offered to call Chrysta for you. We are also wondering did you see any wild life or unusual flowers. We are so impressed that you are enjoying the outdoors, without your laptop. Wendy said we were going to get you a watch with a compass, but she changed her mind and thought why would he ever need a compass. She apologizes for knowing you so well.
    We wait in anticipation the your next installment of the Eventures of the Pedde vacation.

    Have fun !!!!!!!!!!!

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  4. Hi, Helix Girls!! Nice of you to stop by. The young girls in the post you were commenting on likely thought I was just a dirty old man. A visibly drunken woman in the bar at the Pelican Inn offered to be my 'taxi' to get back to my hotel. I think she might have had another stop in mind on the way there. When offered the attention of someone of the opposite sex, one might be expected to feel flattered. If I tell you that I felt anything but flattered, you can deduce that the woman was unappealing on many levels.

    Yes, Wendy is right. I always know where is North, South, East and West and am rarely disoriented. The problem is that a walk always seems much furthern than a drive, doesn't it?

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