The Golden Past

I wish I didn’t get upset about things I can’t do anything about. “God give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.” I try to divert myself with nonsense, i.e. watching “Pawn Stars” on television. Then something happens, and I can’t resist writing a blog. As if anything I say makes any difference!

My son David called my attention to an article I overlooked in Smithsonian Magazine. It was the last article in the June issue. I missed it on a day when I was tired of reading and put aside the magazine to watch television where greedy contestants chose between door No. 1 and door No. 2.

If it weren’t for David, I never would have read Lance Morrow’s essay. He tells about a Buddhist monk, Kenko, who yearned for a golden age, “a Japanese Camelot,” when all was “graceful.” In the 1300's Kenko idealized the past, sure that things were much worse in his own times.

In Edwin Arlington Robinson’s poem, “Miniver Cheevy”, a 19th Century New Englander longed for days when knighthood was in flower and “men wore iron clothing.”

Today some people still pine for the "good old days" when we didn't have electricity or indoor plumbing.

The Tee Party proposes to return America to the land of the pioneers. Each man lived on his own plot of land, with his rifle close at hand to defend his home against all who would attack it. If his barn burned down, the neighbors would come and help rebuild it.

We no longer live in Mayberry. I live in a suburb of Dallas. In my town of 250,000, local taxes pay for our fire department, police protection, schools, and all the other city services, including parks and street repairs. We don’t want dusty unpaved streets like the one where Marshall Dillon shot down bad guys, who truly “hit the dust,” but if we don’t get enough money from taxes, we drive on pot holes.

Expand this to the nation. We are one of the largest countries in the World. It takes a lot of money to keep the U.S. working, a lot of government, a lot of taxes. Anyone who falls for that silly slogan, “Less Government, Lower Taxes.” is a fool.