Maybe there is hope for a change

Maybe there's hope.

I decided to go down to our small park for a music in the park event. The Suttons (our mechanic) sponsored it and the band was from the small town of Woodhull. It was made up of men and women from age 9 to 83. The park was  filled with locals. Many of them are good hard working people but we have our share of welfare, poorly clothed and unkempt. Some families are lower IQ and sloth like. Then there are the aged and infirm. People with canes and walkers. Its an elderly community. One woman walked in (with some help) who is 96. A few young men in their 30s came with their families. Bright eyed kids raced around the park. I found myself comparing this crowd to the hundreds of beautiful people we saw vacationing in McCall last month. It has become a bad habit that I look at people and wonder how will they survive if The SHTF? Who will look out for them?

The local band is amateur but enthusiastic. What can I say I was a rather mediocre drummer in highschool band. The first thing they played was the Star Spangled Banner and everyone stood without any announcement. There were no Obama's groping their crotch like he does when he is bored and doesn't know what else to do. The next musical piece was dedicated to all of the veterans in all of the branches of service. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard. As the band played the marching song for each branch they asked veterans to stand as theirs was played, and a veteran of that branch of service walked carrying the correct flag. Everyone there cheered and clapped loudly for each flag. And I thought to myself, would all of the "beautiful people" in cities across this nation would have done the same? I would hope so. Then they played a melody that started with taps to honor the deceased veterans. Taps always chokes me up......

I don't think that anyone in congress or the white house could have provided a more touching tribute despite the occasional wrong note or missed drum beat. Underneath the gathered poverty and the shaggy haired rag a muffins, inside the overweight and underweight, bent with cancer and aged bodies, beats something that many parts of America have lost or conveniently forgotten. Maybe beauty is only skin deep after all.

How do we preserve what little is left of this nation? That is the challenge ahead of us.