Oh Captain, My Captain, there is Mutiny on the Bounty

It should be noted that I am a big fan of letting the lunatics run the asylum and that I am truly a man of my word.  Today I will be taking a much needed break and turning over the helm to a guest author.  As promised, all guest submissions will be honored provided they are relatively family friendly . . . at least as family friendly as I get these days.  As such, you really have a great deal of latitude here.  I welcome any and all submissions and promise that this is not going to turn into a completely open town hall.  I will be continuing my usual submissions, but if you have something you want to get off of your chest, by all means, speak up.  I will be happy to voice your feelings, opinions or just general nonsense on your behalf.  The submissions will remain anonymous unless the author wishes to be given their due credit.  To that end, here is our first guest entry.  Please note that the views and opinions posted in guest submissions are not the views and opinions of the Jack Butler Show.  In other words, if you don't like what you read, it ain't my fault.


"Believe it or not, I am an American through and through.  I say this because I am so profoundly disappointed in my country that it’s hard for me to speak in her defense.  Because of Jack’s experience, I have been forced to see the other side.  I no longer see myself, or my country, as exceptional in any way other than it’s exceptional opportunity to miss an opportunity.  We have the resources, yet we have no national high-speed rail system, no alternative power system, only limited fresh-food markets, and certainly no sense of respect for civil institutions, or sense of cooperation to meet common goals.  In my town the store-fronts are vacant, but in France the store-fronts are full of small merchants. Our farmers markets are struggling, while France has one in every hamlet. I thought France was full of “socialists.”  What gives?

Here is my diagnosis.  When I was young I was taught that the common good is the highest good.  France seems to still understand this.  In our self indulgence, we have obviously forgotten what made us who we are.  “E Pluribus Unum,” yet just today, our elected “representives,” instead of addressing the common good, spent the day debating whether “In God We Trust” should be given higher station.  Is it not obvious what is wrong with us?  Do we not understand that there is more income inequality than there has been since the “Gilded Age.”  Are we so self absorbed that we have learned nothing from the French Revolution.  Are we, the sons of liberty, to “eat cake.”

France does not understand initiative and America does not understand cooperation.  Must it be one, or the other?  Have we so lost respect for history that we are no longer looking for the “golden mean.”  If we do not come again to respect education and intellect, then I wish to join you, Jack, in the world of the sane."