http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080706/ap_on_re_us/america_s_bad_mood
*beginning of excerpt from the article, for fair use purposes.
Even folks in the Optimist Club are having a tough time toeing an
upbeat line these days. Eighteen members of the volunteer
organization's Gilbert, Ariz., chapter have gathered, a few days
before this nation's 232nd birthday, to focus on the positive: Their
book drive for schoolchildren and an Independence Day project to place
American flags along the streets of one neighborhood.
They beam through the Pledge of Allegiance, applaud each other's good
news =97 a house that recently sold despite Arizona's down market, and
one member's valiant battle with cancer. "I didn't die," she says as
the others cheer.
But then talk turns to the state of the Union, and the Optimists
become decidedly bleak.
They use words such as "terrified," "disgusted" and "scary" to
describe what one calls "this mess" we Americans find ourselves in.
Then comes the list of problems constituting the mess: a protracted
war, $4-a-gallon gas, soaring food prices, uncertainty about jobs, an
erratic stock market, a tougher housing market, and so on and so
forth.
One member's son is serving his second tour in Iraq. Another speaks of
a daughter who's lost her job in the mortgage industry and a son in
construction whose salary was slashed. Still another mentions a friend
who can barely afford gas
*end of excerpt from the article.
Hey, if the members of the Optimist's Club are feeling defeated, just
think of how the rest of the nation must feel. All of the problems of
this nation are sure to decrease the brotherly love we used to feel
and the years of success the successful America that President Bill
Clinton had brought us. To be surplanted by the evil and selfish
environment of cronyism and favoritism the sinful administration of
GWBush and those who are rewarded well to wor****p his feet, lick his
boots, and suck his toes. .
I'll open the floor for discussion and discourse.....
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