The December 25, 2009 edition of The Status Quo: An Electronic Newsletter is dedicated to the US soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who are today battling demons they may not be able to conquer. As the US Army prepares to announce that 2009 will be another record year for suicides, the Status Quo would like to remind its readers that it is one thing to die for your country, but it is another thing altogether to kill for it. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers. They will need them.
A Day in the Life of a Dying Nation
In an effort to once again convince the American people that their nation is dying, the Status Quo decided to choose three articles appearing in just one newspaper on just one day. No, the Status Quo does not need to research multiple daily newspapers to find support for its assertion that the land of the free, home of the brave is dying. It needs only one paper and one day to find the evidence that proves our nation is on life support.
It is only fitting that this offering is based upon information contained in articles from The Detroit News. Why The Detroit News you may ask. Simple. When the Status Quo returned to Michigan to preach the gospel of change in February 2001, it was The Detroit News that took the time to get the only story that mattered that day correct. The Detroit Free Press sent a High School sports reporter to interview the Status Quo. And he dropped the ball.
Another equally compelling reason why the Status Quo picked the News was that it was the daily that the Status Quo read for the better part of the last eight years. Whether picked up from the local D&W in Rockford, MI or read on line while living in Germany, England and Maryland, it was the News that kept the Status Quo advised on the progress of our nation’s fall from grace. And what a fall it has been. But that is enough of ancient history. It is time to set the record straight one more time.
The first article to be examined is “Federal Deficit at 1.42 trillion”. Appearing in the October 17, 2009 edition, the article purports to educate the reader to just how much $1.42 trillion really is. According to the article, $1,420,000,000,000,000.00 is a debt that will cost each and every American $4,700 to pay off if they paid it today. Unfortunately, the News did not inform its readers that the payoff was $4,700 today. They did not tell the reader what the price will be if the debt is paid tomorrow.
The article also warns the reader that if the status quo in Washington DC is not changed, the “seeds of another economic crisis” may be sowed. Citing another Harvard professor who has dedicated his life to money, the editors at The Detroit News hoped to convince the reader that even the elitists of the Ivy League think that our nation is falling from grace. Too bad they are a day late and a trillion dollars short.
Describing our national government’s fiscal policies as “rudderless”, the editors in the Status Quo’s birthplace finally decided that it was time to tell the reader that the fiscal policies implemented by the career politicians in Washington D.C. were in fact destroying our nation. In fact, they even went out on a limb to warn us that the criminals on Capitol Hill do not have the “will to make the hard political choices to get control of the imbalances.” This is a perfect example of the hard hitting investigative reporting that has kept the American people informed of our nation’s fall from grace. The question the Status Quo poses to the editors in Detroit is: “Where have you been the past ten years?
When the reader finishes this article they must understand that the future of our children is bleak. Saddled with debt they cannot pay and did not create, they will be forced to experience inflation unlike any seen in the country’s history. And to those who still doubt this Newsletter’s assertions about the coming storm, let the Status Quo remind them that it was here many years ago that the economic catastrophe that will soon reach our shores was predicted. On July 4, 2000, it was a long way off. Now, it is just around the corner.
The second article from the October 17, 2009 edition of The Detroit News is not really an article but a single paragraph informing the reader that Minnesota pigs have tested positive for swine flu. Failing to even mention the possibility that the swine flu may mutate into a strain far more deadly than the original strain, it appears as if the editors at the News did not think it important enough to warn the reader that should the original strain of swine flu mutate into a more viral strain, that strain could sweep the nation and world in a matter of months.
Of course the swine flu may not mutate in the exposed swine. Of course the swine that were exposed to the swine flu might have been slaughtered before the strain could mutate. Of course the swine that were exposed to the mutated strain could have been slaughtered before they exposed other swine to the mutated strain. And of course medical professionals could manufacture a vaccine to combat the outbreak. But the reality of the situation is far more distressing and a few sentences do not do the subject justice. What the News should have done is take the time and space to teach the reader just how dangerous America’s food industry has become.
As a result of the industrial farming of swine, poultry, and bovine, America has created a ticking time bomb that very well may unleash upon us a strain of influenza that will decimate our nation. This is to say nothing of what this food is doing to our health. It is killing us for sure. Yet, our poor diets do not compare with the killing power of Influenza. Unlike the 1918 strain that killed tens of millions more than the guns of the First World War killed and in a fraction of the time, a new strain of the bird flu, swine flu or some other flu could spread around the world with such speed that medical professionals will not have sufficient time to discover a vaccine let alone deploy it worldwide. It is no exaggeration to write that the death toll could reach 300 million or more worldwide. The effect such an event would have is incalculable. It suffices to say that such an event would not only bring the nations of the world to their knees, it would create chaos that would take humanity years from which to recover. This is what the News should have printed if only to convince its readers that we, as a society, must reform our system of food production because it is a matter of life and death.
The third article to be examined on this most special day is a story that might not first appear to be evidence that our nation is falling from grace. However, after a careful examination, it is indeed proof that are nation is fast falling from grace. “Groups upset at denial of interracial marriage” reported that one Louisiana justice of the peace refused to marry an interracial couple because he believed that the children they might have will suffer because they could be the target of abuse by bigots like him. How pathetic.
The fact that there is a Justice of the Peace in Louisiana who happens to be a bigot is not news. We have bigots everywhere in the United States. What makes the article pathetic is that it is more prominent than the article educating us to exactly how fast the criminals on Capitol Hill are destroying our nation and more detailed than the few words given to Minnesota swine contracting swine flu. As long as America’s daily newspapers believe that one ignorant justice of the peace merits such attention, the American people will continue to believe that what is really wrong with America is a simple minded fool from Louisiana, California or Michigan.
The truth is America’s daily newspapers have done a poor job educating the American people to the news that really matters. Unlike The Status Quo: An Electronic Newsletter, which prints all the news no one else will print, America’s once famous daily newspapers have become nothing more than advertising vehicles for the latest movie release, restaurant guide, and Gardner White closeout sale. They, like most of America, have lost their way. Too bad they did not read what the Status Quo has been writing. If they had, they might have been able to educate their readers that time was running out.
The Status Quo would be remiss if it did not remind its readers that July 4, 2010 is only a few months away. For those who are confused or do not remember what July 4, 2010 represents, the Status Quo directs its readers to the article Pillars of Life. Posted more than seven (7) years ago, Pillars of Life warned that if the American people did not change the status quo, they could join the Status Quo as it celebrated the tenth anniversary of this Newsletter among the ruins that were once the pillars of your life. Unfortunately, the people of Michigan know well what it means to celebrate among the ruins of one’s life. They are celebrating this most special of days among the ruins that were once the pillars of their lives.
Over and Out
To those who know the Status Quo it will come as no surprise to learn that anger is an emotion it posses in abundance. At times, it probably appeared as if the rage burning within the Status Quo would in fact consume it. Unfortunately, it did not just consume the Status Quo. It consumed the one the Status Quo promised to love and cherish for the rest of its life.
For years, the Status Quo has believed it was above the pain and suffering associated with child sexual abuse. Always declining help when professionals offered it, the Status Quo needed no one’s help. It was stronger than those who needed help and it was smarter than those who gave it. In short, the effects of child sexual abuse could not hurt the Status Quo because the Status Quo was beyond such things. How wrong it was.
In order to prove to the people of America that it understood the pain of sexual abuse, the Status Quo wanted everyone to know what the Sodomite had done to an 11-year old boy from St. Jude. However, the Status Quo was only clever by half. In other words, the Status Quo thought that by telling only part of the story, it could convince its readers it knew the pain of sexual abuse without appearing to its readers as someone totally screwed up. For years the Status Quo refused to confront the truth about what happened at the Sodomite’s home one night when the Status Quo had too much to drink. Despite having come close to confronting these demons, once when the Status Quo was 17 and again when it was 38, the Status Quo continued to suppress not only the truth about what the Sodomite and his friend did to the Status Quo but more importantly the guilt associated with failing to save one of His little ones from the pain it knew he was experiencing.
When the Sodomite learned that he could not trick the Status Quo in believing oral sex with him was OK, he made other plans to ravish the Status Quo. In fact, it has only been the last few weeks that the Status Quo has finally confronted these memories. And it has only been in the comfort of a home the Status Quo left when it was 38 that it found the courage to confront these memories. There can be no better Christmas gift for the Status Quo than to be celebrating the birth of the One who loves children above all others with its brothers and sisters in uniform.
What is ironic about this and so much of the Status Quo’s tortured life is that there were two instances when the Status Quo came close to admitting the truth about what really happened that terrible night in 1974 and how horrible it felt about not speaking out when a friend of the Status Quo’s brother began “cleaning” the Sodomite’s house. Lying in bed more than 30 years ago, the Status Quo listened to a friend of its brother describe how he made money cleaning the Sodomite’s home. It was at this time that the Status Quo knew it was not alone in its misery. It was also at this time that the Status Quo should have told its parents that the Sodomite was really a monster. For this, the Status Quo could not forgive itself. The guilt it carried within it these 30 years had finally come to overwhelm even the bravest and most dedicated of soldiers.
The second incident that almost made the Status Quo confront the whole truth about what happened at the Sodomite’s home involved the same boy but only now he was a man. More than twenty years after that fateful night in the Status Quo’s childhood bedroom, the Status Quo sat in the office of the Southfield attorney who represented the plaintiffs that sued the Sodomite in Wayne County Circuit Court in 2001 when this same tortured soul called this attorney to confirm that what was reported about the Sodomite in the local news was in fact true. He gave his first name and described to this lawyer precisely what was done to him. Sitting in that office, the Status Quo began to shake while a sense of panic overtook it. And for a split second, the Status Quo remembered what the Sodomite and his friend did to the Status Quo when it has passed out from drinking too much wine. Waking to the moans of the Sodomite and the pain of being anally sodomized, the Status Quo was sick to its stomach but could not move. Not unlike the episode where the Sodomite orally sodomized the Status Quo just a few weeks or months before, this episode was different because the Sodomite was not alone. His friend took a turn as well. Only now and in this place can the Status Quo admit to the truth. Only now and in this place did the Status Quo muster the courage to tell the world what really happened when the Status Quo’s childhood was taken from it.
The Status Quo realizes that many will doubt its assertions. The Status Quo knows that many will say it is lying just like they said the Sodomite was not a pedophile in 2000. However, unlike 2000, when the Status Quo cared what people thought, today it does not care what you or anyone else thinks. Yes, the Status Quo knew the Sodomite was capable of very weird things in his bedroom. Yes, the Status Quo was scared to return to the Sodomite’s home after what happened a few weeks or months before. But the lure of money and the Sodomite’s apology for what happened previously tricked the Status Quo into thinking that nothing of the kind would occur again. And if you think this unbelievable, what do you think about the Status Quo asking the Sodomite for a letter of reference when it applied to law school in 1984?
To those who love the Status Quo it is imperative to understand that nothing will ever be the same. The shame the Status Quo feels knows no bounds precisely because its failure to act at 17 cost the life of one of His angels. His name is Christopher. You may recall an earlier edition of this Newsletter was dedicated to him. It was also the last time the Sodomite was mentioned by name. It was the Status Quo’s way of addressing this guilt if only for a moment.
As the Status Quo looks back on the past ten years, it knows one thing for sure. It has given all it can to the American people and taken all it can from the one it vowed to love and cherish. In an effort to wake the American people from their carbohydrate induced slumber, the Status Quo has now laid bare for all to read its most spectacular failure. As such, the Status Quo is happy to announce that this will be the final edition of The Status Quo: An Electronic Newsletter.
First posted on July 4, 2000, this Newsletter has tried to warn the American people to what awaited them if they did not change the status quo. Pillars of Life (July 02), The Golden Age of Pedophilia (February 02) and Hey Jude (remix) (May 02) are just a few hate filled articles that should have convinced the American people that the time to rewrite our criminal codes had arrived. As for the reformation of the American political process, The Scourge of the People (January 02), Foreign Entanglements (January 03) and The Meaning of Sacrifice (July 4, 2000-2007) provided more than enough evidence to convince anyone who wanted to know that the time to change the status quo in Washington D.C. had also arrived. They also provided ample evidence that the Status Quo was filled with rage. Yet it appears as if the Status Quo’s efforts have been in vain. It appears as if the American people do not want to change the status quo. They must like the direction in which their country is headed. As for the Status Quo, it does not matter anymore because the Status Quo cannot continue the fight. It does, however, have one last thing to give and one last thing to write.
To the one the Status Quo professed to love but hurt at almost every turn, the Status Quo wants you to know that it loves you with all its twisted and broken heart. It also wants you to know that it is sorry that it did not get the help it needed thereby making your life so miserable for so long. And most important of all, it wants you to know that it promises to make things right even if that means never seeing you or your little ones again. As for the American people, the Status Quo is relieved to write the words it should have written long ago:
Over and out. |