Follow that bus America if you will if you must. Admire that Star-Spangled apple-pie crust as it crumbles like an empire. Because every empire falls…every empire falls. Follow that bus like you followed that white Ford Bronco back in 1994. AC Cowlings at the wheel. And we all know who was in the back seat. But isn’t it 2020? Yes, it is. But we’re gonna party like its 1999. Hang out with the Merry Pranksters like its 1964 with Neal Cassidy at the wheel. And we all know who the passengers were. Step into that Partridge family bus like its 1970. Sing, C’mon Get Happy. But we’ll realize that time…and fame hasn’t been kind to any of us. Just ask David Cassidy. Well…I guess you can’t. It’s been a strange, sad trip. It turned out to be not so “magical” after
all.
Follow that bus America if you will if you must. Follow those pack of journalists that you so dearly trust. Seek the truth and it will set you free as you watch and hear the rat-a-tat staccato of instant punditry and all of that. The Cannabis News Network, MSLSD, FOX in the Henhouse News, Meet the Depressed, Disgrace the Nation, This Week with George Dishonest, Morning Joke. Where are all the great journalists of yore? Walter Cronkite? Dead. Edward R.? Dead. Chet Huntley? Dead. David Brinkley? Dead. Tim Russert? Dead. Jim Lehrer? Dead. Max Robinson? Dead. Ed Bradley? Dead. Dead, dead, and dead. The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times…all dead as well. Dan Rather, Ted Koppel, and Barbara Walters? They are no longer Dan Rather, Ted Koppel, and Barbara Walters. Journalism is
dead. Let the 24-hour news cycle exhilarate, titillate, infuriate, humiliate and subjugate you to an exhaustion that knows no bounds. But don’t worry. Take that stash of amphetamines and start all over again. Is it real or satire? Do I dare eat a peach? I’m not sure, let me ask Rachel Maddow. And the media hell bent on creating Donald Trump is now hell bent on destroying him.
Follow that bus America if you will if you must. Shake your head in disgust. Tear down every monument and statue that offends. The Washington Monument. Tear it down. The Great Emancipator’s statue. Tear it down. The Jefferson Memorial. Tear it down. Teddy Roosevelt. Tear it down. Andrew Jackson. Tear it down. Ulysses (what the hell did I do wrong) Grant. Tear it down. The Statue of Liberty. Tear it down. I never quite liked her eyes. Down, down, down. For its not enough to manipulate history, you must completely erase it. But once you do that you will never learn from it. You have sowed the wind, now you’ll reap the whirlwind. No more Aunt Jemima, no more Mrs. Butterworth, no more Uncle Ben, no more Washington Redskins, and worst of all…no more Eskimo Pies.
Follow that bus America if you will if you must. Its Minneapolis or bust. Go beyond the headlines. Ask yourself how a man like George Floyd found himself passing counterfeit $20 bills (adorned by the offensive Andrew Jackson) at the end of his life. We gave him love said his family. We gave him an opportunity said the college administrator. We gave him rehabilitation said the head of the prison industrial complex. We gave him support said the many friends. Ask yourself how a man like Derek Chavin could find himself with his knee on the throat of a man, extinguishing that man’s life over a fake $20 bill. The department promoted him, the union protected him, the city establishment perpetuated him and now the whole world loathes him. The answer is not blowing in the wind Bobby. The answer is right in front of our fetid faces. Make America great again? No, make
America sane again.
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