My MP3 Player Loves Elvis

Music is something with which I've always struggled to identify. I can appreciate a catchy tune about as well as the next person, but that is the limit of the depth. I spent most of the 90's, and thus my childhood, simply listening to what other's liked. My sister's insipid and repetitive pop music, my dad's aging rock, and my friends' alternative music. Can't help but wonder to what Green Day and The Offspring were supposed to be an alternative. Of course these days Green Day is punk. Or neo-punk. Or pop-punk. Who knows? Can you imagine walking through a music shop that was actually divided into all of the self-gratifying and ego maniacal sub-genres that musicians are constantly inventing?

Nothing against music or musicians per say. I just tend to dislike anyone who buys into their own hype or views their own work as being more pivotal and groundbreaking than it actually is. Kanye West and The White Stripes, I'm talking to you.

I do enjoy certain music. Stone Temple Pilots is my favorite band and I do enjoy Green Day and The Offspring despite my genre ignorance. Flogging Molly is also quite remarkable. I tend to evaluate music based upon whether I can appreciate the lyrics while also enjoying the accompanying noise. Seems like a silly thing to say but when so much out there is decidedly unpoetical, to say the least, it becomes a necessary statement. There is a lot of music out there that doesn't seem to have anything to say. Unless it is a purely instrumental piece, I think that's a problem. I also understand that most music tries only to speak to a very specific audience, and that is perfectly acceptable. I'm just not in very many audiences.

Patriotism

I consider myself to be a patriot.

The thing is that I'm one of those patriots that rarely sees eye to eye with the government. One of the issues with democracy is that you almost always are going to have a narrow majority whose views are going to be pressed on the entirety of the nation. (Better than the views of one person or of a very small minority being pressed on the masses, but still.) Even then it's just the narrow majority of the registered voters who actually make it out for an election. I'm also of the mind that people who whine but do not actively participate in the democratic process are no better than those people whose views include taking away freedom and use the system to do so and find so little resistance in their quest. Those freedoms include a right to marriage for all, freedom of and from religion, and the freedom to control one's own body.

There shouldn't have to be laws saying who can marry who or other such nonsense. Especially in a society where less than fifty percent of marriages last. In the making of those laws no mention of God or gods should ever come up. Yahweh, Allah, Jesus, Mohammad, Thor, Zeus, Buddha, the Flying Spaghetti Monster and all their friends should not be used as an excuse to oppress. Beyond the religious implications there is no valid argument for banning homosexual marriage and in a secular nation a religious argument should not be one at all.

I'm a patriot in that I believe in the United States Constitution above all else. Take the flag and the pledge to said flag and throw them away for all I care. They are not what matter. They are not the foundation of our country. They are not what ensure our freedom. They are not what the President and every member of the Armed Forces swear to uphold and protect. So when someone like Barack Obama comes along and does where a flag on his lapel, that's okay. The words coming out of his mouth show he is a patriot because he speaks of living up to our Constitution. Decorations do not matter.

Patriotism is a belief in freedom for all in all facets of life, a belief in the founding principles of our nation, and belief that we as a nation can find our way out of the dark to again become the beacon we once were.