My country 'tis of thee

I know I'm a couple weeks early on this, but the pulse of the blogosphere is right; moping around for 1458 days is no way to live. So, here are some things I'm still thankful for:

1. To be alive in the bottom half of the first inning of a great technological age.

2. To have known relatively little of want or need. (Only struggled for warmth was when I was camping, hungered for food when on a diet, and felt oppressed when my parents would ground me for indulging in too much freedom.)

3. For great friends: H, D, C, J and others too numerous to mention who have been, are and will be my partners in crime, voices of reason, & general tributes to what amazing creatures human beings can be.

4. MK who is making the journey into my 30s a thrilling, non-cynical adventure in gender relations.

5. Opportunities (even ones I have missed or failed to take advantage of...at least they were available to me).

The current administration would probably like nothing better than to think that the morale of the Moderates and Left has been stricken with such a sense of hopelessness and apathy that we will now all line up for our Conservative-obotomies and allow them to drag us back into the medieval
dark ages. As the saying goes, whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and America isn't dead yet.

This incredible experiment in liberty and free-will has extracted itself from under the iron fist of a king, willed itself back together through civil war and is the model to which many developing countries hope to evolve. The "Flee or Fight" reaction is instinctive, and though fleeing is the path of least resistance, it's not what this country was founded on. I for one will invoke my right of civil disobidiance and be the proverbial irritating tick on the ass of the religious right for the next 4 years.