What It Means To Be American.

Namaste and welcome my friends, family, and fellow knowledge seekers to posting number 300 for the Quiet Mouse Strikes Back. I want to start by thanking my readers from all around the globe on 6 continents,  over 40,000 views. I started writing this blog in September of 2010 and have written about a bevy of heavy hitting topics like "Eat More Pussy", "Into the Light", "Marvel vs DC: Battle For the Comics Movie Universe", "A Reason for Hope", "Presidential Politics", and "I Love Boobs".
Today this blog is a co-op effort between myself and my wife, the brilliant woman I call a.k.a. Hunny Bear.

So what does it really mean to be an American these days? Unless you are native, you came here to this nation plantation as an immigrant. Our founding fathers, with 13 original colonies fought against the British Empire for the right to create a new nation based upon the principles constructed into the Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America. The Declaration of Independence was ratified in 1776 giving birth to the USA. Since then we have had physical slavery of blacks AND whites, numerous wars including the Civil War, the first and second "Great Wars" a.k.a. "World War 1 and World War 2". This goes all the way up through the Korea and Vietnam wars until our current war/occupation of the Middle East.

Economic slavery has replaced the past archaic form of physical slavery to include nearly everyone since the inception of the "Federal" Reserve Bank in 1913, which has diminished the purchasing value of the U.S. dollar by 90% in the last hundred years through the secret tax known as INFLATION, which keeps the wealthy richer and keeps the poor disenfranchised and living in squalor.

Fast forward to 2016 we are on the precipice of REAL change as a nation, for good or bad. Time to sink or swim. We are looking into Presidential election season and we're already are mostly down to the final four: Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz,  and Donald Trump.
To make an accurate and informed decision as an aware citizen, one MUST KNOW the lessons our history has taught us, lest we continue to make the SAME mistakes as the past.

1) History has shown us that Trump is a misogynistic, xenophobic, racist that constantly flip flops his political affiliation as well as his viewpoints. He's quick to start a fight and turn any debate into a penis contest (he actually did this). Many international leaders do not like him based on his previous experience as a business mogul. He is highly likely to get us as a nation into MORE wars and continued civil unrest.

2) History has shown us that Hillary Clinton is untrustworthy as a politician. She was fired from her involvement in the Watergate investigating for being manipulative and repeatedly lying under oath. Her husband Bill's legacy as president is being ridden on the coat tails all the way, undeservingly, into the white house upon no other merit than family name. She was negligent in handling the Benghazi incident, AT BEST. The latest scandal shows her having wiped computers hard drives with confidential information that, again AT BEST, shows her to be a liar, manipulator, and unworthy of holding the highest office in the land.

3) Ted Cruz comes off as a nice guy, but he is a devout Christian, headstrong in pushing his moral agenda on others. I agree with his sentiment about wanting more accountability in government, especially in the IRS, Defense Department, and Federal Reserve Bank. Where I get lost on him is the religious stuff, so I digress for a moment. This man claims to be a pro-life conservative, but I must ask: how can you be pro-life and still support terrorist nations like Israel, or really ANY war, in general?!?
Also, if you are a devout Christian, why is there need to indoctrinate everyone to your belief system? If you have faith and have been righteous... YOU'RE SET. Why does it bother you so much what other consenting adults to with THEIR bodies, be it sodomy, drugs, or abortion, etc.? Mind your OWN business and I assure you the path of salvation will be much easier than trying to convert others to your PERSONAL belief system.

4) Lastly we come to Bernie Sanders, the self claimed Democratic Socialist. The word socialist has been thrown into the mud lately due to this idea of a FRINGE of society wanting "FREE" stuff from the government. It is NEVER FREE to get help from others, but this is the language of our society. Asking the government for fiscal responsibility with YOUR tax money is CIVIC DUTY. These monies that WILL continue to be taken without your consent ISN'T going to stop any time soon. Sanders wants to cut spending, much like Cruz, to reign in the Federal Reserve, Wall Street political spending, IRS, and Defense Department, cutting the blank check no-bid contract spending that is leading us further and further into imaginary debt to banksters, and closer to full scale economic collapse. The problem with his ideas isn't his desire to help Americans or to put OUR needs before the desire to send monies to foreign nations while ours goes to squalor, no... it's in how to cut those erroneous spendings without breaking the bank. Sanders wants to spend MORE on infrastructure, mental health treatment, giving all citizens "free" college and "free" universal health care (paid for by collective tax dollars) instead of wasting money on bombs, bullets, and bull shit.

Are any of the candidates perfect, nope. Are they going to get us out of wars? Cut our spending? Deficit? What will he/she do about the Federal Reserve, globalist agendas, or real world issues like energy, pollution, and homelessness/hunger?!?

So WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE AMERICAN?
We have the RIGHT to choose our destiny in this nation and we, as citizens need to embrace this idea before it's too late. We CAN sit back and act like sheeple, glued to our tv's, believing someone else's version of life and truth, manipulated into believing the web of lies, stuck in the Matrix, OR...
We can USE our brains to LEARN about the past, INVEST in our nation AND it's citizens FIRST before others. We CAN think about the kind of future we want our children to grow up in, a POLICE STATE OF OPPRESSION... OR... a state of CONSCIENTIOUSNESS where we, as citizens, take personal pride and responsibility in making this nation great.
Forget all the rhetoric you've been taught by religions and political ideologies and FEEL and LOVE with your heart. THINK and IMAGINE A BRIGHTER, BETTER WORLD with your brain.
Especially when we live in a nation that claims over 70% of its citizens to be "Christian", we MUST do better to include ALL in our worldview as Americans, INCLUDING the poorest AND the richest, inclusive to ALL. TOP TO BOTTOM we owe one another the blessing of the PURSUIT of life, liberty, and happiness. We are NOT guaranteed to find all of it, but we ARE entitled to the pursuit.

As Americans it is our DUTY to fight enemies of freedom BOTH foreign AND domestic, the right preserved and ensured by the Second Amendment.
We have the RIGHT to be safe from illegal search and seizure, to be free within the confines of our home and person by the fourth amendment. I could go on all day, but it is YOUR DUTY to do the research and to KNOW your rights as a citizen. Not knowing your rights does NOT keep you from the consequences, for good or bad, it only makes you ignorant for not knowing.
Despite our ancestry as Americans, the fact that we all live HERE, in THIS country means that WE are ALL Americans FIRST; before where we or our ancestors originally came from.
I once knew a man from London named Regis, around the time I finished high school and first started taking college classes. Regis was black as night and HATED hearing other black Americans calling themselves or himself "African Americans". He worked to become a U.S. citizen and considered himself American FIRST.
In another part of my life I met a white man from South Africa, let's call him Patrick. Patrick was in the United States going to college and was a really cool guy. He was perplexed at the idea of Americans dividing and classifying one another after ask the effort their descendants took to get here, to become AMERICAN. Patrick didn't like how blacks called themselves African Americans when only their ancestors perhaps came from there, but there are also blacks and other dark skinned folks from the middle east and other parts. Patrick felt like he of all people could be an African American, albeit white. He too worked hard to become a citizen and eventually achieved his goal of being American.

Perhaps the moral of the story is that those born into this country often take their basic civil liberties and civic responsibilities to both nation and fellow citizen for granted. Those who are forced to EARN the PRIVILEGE of citizenship KNOW the burden of responsibility to the American society and it's citizens.


Now I'm going to do something I've never done before. This is my 300th posting; a mark on my journey through life and the thoughts I have shared through this blog the Quiet Mouse Strikes Back. I'm going to turn this over so my wife a.k.a. Hunny Bear can share some thoughts.

Like most young adults, I too was once more arrogant and bull-headed than I am now, perhaps through the process of learning and having my eyes opened to all the wonders of the world around me. In an attempt to find myself and my place in the world I learned a great deal about both myself and various cultures across the globe, their history, and their legacy.  In the midst of learning all of this, I found my dislike for my own country increasing with each day, to the point that I went through periods of avoiding the newspapers and television newscasts as much as possible…though I still do this to some degree, focusing more on global news than that of the stuff that highlights either the best or the worst, of which is manipulated and glamorized to make us believe whatever that particular news affiliate wants us to!

Since I was a child, I had been told stories about my ancestors, migrating from Ireland, France and Prussia…and I slowly identified myself as having been from these counties…when in reality, though they are indeed part of who I am, ultimately I am American….because that’s where I was born, raised, and cultured.  My French ancestor took a young Cherokee Native American for his wife, with whom they would have several children.  This young woman, born in 1882, died just months before my birth, and is now the closest ancestor of whom I have ever known, at 96 years old, she outlived all of her children, as well as many of her grandchildren.

In college, I would write many papers about my heritage and how I identify myself, and through this process of learning, I became a proud decedent that would try my best to learn about the culture and heritage of those before me.  You would think that in doing so, I would have realized that they too wanted to belong to a different country…which is why they came here, to what they believed was a land of opportunity!  The only ones that were truly forced away from their native homes, were the Native Americans…who deserve far far more respect and acknowledgement than they receive.  English settlers and eventually the citizens of America, forced them from their land, while decimating almost their entire civilization.  The story of the Trail of Tears is a perfect example of why there has been almost no attention given to the horrible things that happened to the Native American people…because even after everything they had endured, they were still a proud race…and still are.

It was upon meeting a wonderful Irish woman recently, that I finally had that epiphany I needed to have, that brought it all together.  We were negotiating the price on a beautiful china hutch with an older gentleman, when out of nowhere a pale woman with dark hair rushes from upstairs and joins in, offering for us to take the matching dining set too…since they won’t need it where they are going.  I quickly accept the offer and without even having to inquire about where it is they are going, she tells us about how they’re finally going back to California, as well as all about how and where they met, got the furniture, and on and on…  Fascinated by her accent, I listened to her stories and eventually (and foolishly) pointed out that I too was Irish, a descendant of an O’Keenan clan.

  

To my dismay, the woman politely corrected me, and informed me that I am American, just like how she now considered herself American, since she had lived here for the last few decades and planned to continue living here.  I was both confused and annoyed at the thought of not being considered to be of that culture and heritage that ran through my veins.  It took a few weeks of pondering this and everything else going on with politics, presidential elections, poverty, homelessness, religion, my spirituality, and my place within the world…then it occurred to me.  I am indeed ashamed of the state of affairs that we are finding ourselves in today, but like my Native American ancestors before me, I am choosing to stand my ground and be part of the solution, rather than ignoring or running away from it!

With confidence, I now proudly consider myself to be of English, Irish, French, and Native American descent…but like most every other American, I am a colorful blend of my ancestors before me, all combined to make up the diverse population that call The United States of America their home.  We are indeed the land of opportunity, which many have found, but with opportunity comes as many ugly things as there are great ones…like greed and corruption, red-tape, politics, and suffering.  As I see it, a lot of our problems would be solved if people focused more attention on making and keeping our government accountable, and redirecting our resources from overseas and the insane military budget, to helping stimulate the economy, provide funding for housing, jobs, healthcare, and especially mental health care!

There are so many Americans always on the fence about or ignoring politics altogether, than if just a quarter of the people who never vote took a stand, we could make serious change…sadly, that’s unlikely to ever actually happen.  Just like with discrimination…it only still exists because we allow it to!!  As a nation, if the majority of people are accepting of the diverse population that exists around us, while forgiving the past and learning from it, being assertive…but not aggressive about the few people that are stupid enough to still hold onto these horrible beliefs.  Personally, I feel sorry for bigots….because just like most other extremists, they often only know the hatred and narrow belief-set that they were taught.  Living and learning from such hatred only begets more hatred, because that is what seems normal and makes the most sense to them.

Starting the process of actually making a change in our country begins with knowledge and the willingness to learn and embrace the world as it is, each focusing on a few causes that are important to us, our community, and our families; spreading knowledge and enlightening people so that they may hopefully one day do the same.

Well, this has been fun. Thank you to my wonderful Hunny Bear for her contribution to this post. Let's wrap it up with a synopsis of what it means to be American. We can choose to be ignorant, BUT living in this nation of prosperity means we have a responsibility to our fellow men and women; to WORK both in our jobs AND our communities to make this nation great. We owe it to one another to continue to grow as individuals AND as a nation. It is NOT our job to police the world ANYWHERE but within our OWN geographical borders. We NEED citizens that are educated, aware, and conscientious of one another, working TOGETHER as United States of America citizens, toward the common goals of peace, love, and the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness, regardless of race, color, gender, sexual orientation, or where you came from in the world before here. 
If you live in the United States of America, you are now AMERICAN FIRST! 
WELCOME TO AMERICA!
This has been the one and only Quiet Mouse along with his Hunny Bear. 
Peace. Love. Empathy. Truth.