July 4th and other things

(Written on July 4th)

How are you celebrating the Fourth of July in the USA?

I often wonder how many children or young people even think about why we celebrate July 4th. 

As a writer, I often think what if? 

What if the white people had not taken over this country we know today as the United States of America? Would the natives of the land have survived and become more like the Cherokee here in North Carolina? They created their own written language. From what I have read, they lived in communities with leaders and rules they all respected. They governed themselves.

What if the white people who first made their way here had been killed and no strangers were allowed to settle on this land? What if white women had not been brought over here to become wives for the men who were already here?

It was the white man who brought in foreign diseases that killed the native Americans. Although the different tribes of Indigenous people often fought each other for various reasons, would they have survived over the past two hundred plus years? Would they have eventually learned modern ways of life?

I know the history books tell us that Europeans came here to gain religious freedom. That was not why the first explorers came. They were looking for new lands to claim. 

It is still going on. Russia is trying to conquer Ukraine, to take the land and the people, and the resources. Why does this happen?

It seems to me those who do this are all men.

Do men want power so badly they are willing to kill and have others killed for their desires? I think about how long the USA sent American boys and men to fight and be killed in the jungles of Viet Nam even when it was obvious that we could not win the war. Those in charge finally admitted they knew it was a lost cause, but still, they sent our armed forces there. It seems easy for men in power to send young people out to fight the wars and be killed or maimed.

I am a strong believer in communication to end confrontations.

Most women can find a way to solve a problem without coming to blows. At least the women I know can do that. In our Congress the few women who have been elected reach across the aisle and hold meetings as they try to work out the issues of the day. That is what we need more of in our government, I think. And I know we have some women up there who are total nitwits but to know we have more women with common sense governing makes me feel better.

Why did my brothers grow up fighting when they were teens? Why did my sister and I never fight? Is there a violent nature in the male sex that thrives on fighting? I know my parents didn't teach my brothers to fight. 

Gay and I were taught that girls who physically fight are low class. Mother didn't mean they were in a low economic class. She meant they had not been raised with good manners and taught to act like young ladies. We didn't have lots of money and we were not in a high economic class, but to my mother, we were not low class.

Mother came from a family that was thought of highly and respected in the community in which they lived. I have an old newspaper clipping from south Georgia in which a citizen of the area wrote a beautiful letter extolling the virtues of my great grandfather John Monroe Robison and his wife after his death. He was my mother's grandfather. 

I never heard of my father fighting when he was young. He worked in a mill from the time he was a child. When he wasn't working, he played baseball.  

When I go to Netflix and look for a movie to watch, I am dismayed at the selections that are most popular. I should not be surprised since we are known to be the most violent of all civilized nations.

When I try to watch the movies, I can't get far at all before a horrible act of violence takes place. Not as simple as the old western shows where we would see someone shot from horseback. He would fall off the horse and the story went on. 

No, today the camera gets up close and we see the eye being gouged out, the blood running down the face of the man screaming in pain. We don't just see the gallows and know what is going to happen. We are shown the face of the one being hanged, and the camera shows the legs and feet struggling, so we can feel every minute of this horrible happening. I know I am not alone in being upset with this type of thing. A young woman told me recently, " I cover my eyes when that comes on the screen." How many of us hate this kind of thing, but still it is put out there for those who like it and pay for it?

How many of you want to see such things? I will not watch it. When I see these kinds of movies, I quickly turn off the screen as I shudder. How many children and teens are getting a steady diet of this at home?

This week I saw a post where a woman walked out of the Elvis movie that is now showing. She left because of the cussing. They used the Lord's name in vain, she said.

Wow! I don't know where she can find a movie, a TV show, or a series that is not filled with vulgar language and cursing all the way through it. I hate the constant use of the F word. It is not common to use where I live and with people I know, but my young nephew says that's the way all people talk now. Really? Or is it more in the big cities on the streets and in the factories? I know it is common in college even with the professors and instructors. So sad. I hope I never have to live with people who show their ignorance by using this filthy way of communicating. It is so uncalled for. I think someone once said that the use of this language shows a lack of education in how to speak well. 

It makes me think of my sister June who could get across her disappointment, anger, her disgust, her frustration better than anyone I know and she never used bad language in doing so. She had learned a vocabulary to express herself in words that were perfectly acceptable at any time or any place. 

I wonder if the woman who walked out of the Elvis show watches murder mysteries and horror shows? To me, violence is the worst thing about today's entertainment because that teaches impressionable minds and those who have an evil element in them how to torture and kill. Does it numb them to death and violence?

While I love my country and I always will, I am saddened to see how our culture has lost so much of what I loved. I think most of us in this country don't like what we see on TV and on Social Media. We are told that Hollywood makes movies that we Americans like to see. I think that Hollywood is now run by younger people who know what will bring in the money. And, young people go to the movies more than older people, so the movie business depends on young people's money. I wonder why young people want to see the violence and horror, killing, and abuse that is in most movies today. How did our country come to this kind of normal?

On a lighter note:

I celebrate the fourth of July as a personal day for me. I met my husband, Barry, on July 4th, 1963. It was a blind date that did not start too well but ended with us both in love. After the fireworks ended and he took me home, he asked if I would like to go up to Rockmart, Georgia to spend the weekend with his parents, Helen and Hugh Beall. And so began a love story that has never ended. 

Barry had a band in high school. The Dixie Six. Barry is playing drums in this photo. He was also the lead singer.

This weekend I had a visit from some of my Beall relatives. My great-nephew and his girlfriend seemed to enjoy the stories I told about his uncle Barry, his grandfather Richard, and great-grandparents, Helen and Hugh. We had a great time going through old family photos. I was happy to send some home with my niece, Paige, who is very interested in the Beall family history.

Barry and Glenda fishing on Major's Pond. We always stayed until darkness found us.

I hope you all, my readers, have a safe and happy holiday if you live in my country. If you do not live here or celebrate July 4th, I hope you have great weather and can get outside to enjoy it.

Leave me a comment or send an email. I love hearing from you.