For those of you who are wondering how I am following the car wreck I am alive and for the most part unharmed.  I am sad to see my new truck smashed up the day after I bought it, but things come and go I am just happy to be here.  I don’t have any word on the other driver yet, but I will post up here as soon as I know how she is.

For those who don’t know anything about it, I was hit in my new truck by a young girl who ran a red light.  She never slowed down ( I guess that she was distracted the light had been red for a while) and she T-boned me at about 50 mph… She was taken away in an ambulance and I really hope that she is OK.  I am pretty sore, but not dead.  The show must go on anyway, I am playing tonight at the pavilion on Carolina Beach… There will be fire works and much hoopla… Here is a little song that I wrote to commemorate my little brush with that fine line between driving along without a care in the world and the end of it all. It is very rough and unedited so please excuse the sound and quality.

For years there has been an “American personality” type that has endeared itself in our hearts and to the hearts of others around the world. The ideal of a hard worker, who is willing to fight for justice, and who roots for the underdog. These characteristics were forged though the hard work necessary to carve out a new free country of our own from the harsh oligarchy of the old world. Through our grit, determination, sweat, tears, and blood, America was created and the rest of the world was forced to stand back and admire us. After creating our own haven we did something else that was quite honorable, we called out to the world, to anyone who dreamed of the freedoms that we have, to come here and work with us. Millions answered the call throughout history, and they all have helped to make the great country that we used to know. In the America that exists now, that archetype is no longer.

Something has changed in us as a people, and it seems that everyone sees it except for us. We are no longer willing to work hard, fight for anything close to justice, and we root for whoever seems to be winning at any given time. The years of the strong men and women of the USA are fading into the obscurity of a suburban haze where comfort and isolation from your neighbor is held far above our former great ideals. The world sees us as fat and lazy bullies who try to push everyone smaller than us around with money and guns. They aren’t making this image up, and it’s not being fed to them through anti-American propaganda. This is a long earned image that we have created, and unless we accept it and make changes, it will be our undoing.

This is something that I have thought about for quite some time, but it really struck home the other night. I was out with some friends for a birthday party and I saw the UFC 100 fights while standing outside of a bar. The card on this night featured a fighter named Brock Lesnar, who is the biggest fighter that I have ever seen in these bouts and has yet to fight someone his own size (I’m not sure that someone his size exists). He is listed at 6′3″ and 265 lbs. and is a solid mass. He has been caught with large amounts of steroids in the past, and from looking at him now, he looks like he is no stranger to them still. He was fighting a much smaller opponent (yet still a giant man) who has long been respected in MMA named Frank Mir. It was a classic David and Goliath matchup and it stunned me to see how many people were there to root for Goliath. The crowd cheered at the top of their lungs for Lesnar (the current champion) and oohed and ahhed as he beat the tar out of the smaller guy. I was appalled. I’m not trying to discuss the merits or detractions of blood-sports at all, what I am talking about is the rooting for the proverbial Goliath.

As a culture, when did we switch from rooting for the underdog to rooting for whoever wins the most? Why are we such a winners-only culture? How can anyone be a fan of a known cheater?

I think that this winners-only mentality stems from a horrible bastardization of our original ideals. We have been overcome with zealous interpretations of what it is to be an “American” and have in turn changed that very thing.

The honor that came from being the best was there because it was earned.  We were the best at things not because we won everything that we tried (there have been a number of losses in our country’s history that aren’t mentioned in our history classes) but because we tried hard and had a great amount of honesty and humility in our efforts. We were great because on a level playing field the “American archetype” was out there giving everything he had.

There is no honor in cheating, getting what you want regardless of the consequences (pollution, subjugation, outright theft), or in being Goliath. All of the honor lay in David’s hands in the old story. David was the underdog who used his ingenuity and bravery and luck to overcome odds stacked up against him, he didn’t cheat or lie or steal. Somehow we have lost that, and until we no longer embrace the “win at any cost” mentality, we will continue heading in the direction of a nation of people without collective honor. As long as we think that it’s okay for our sports figures to use steroids and for our politicians to lie and cheat, we are without honor.

This begs the question of “Who would you rather be in the fight? David or Goliath?”  Simplified as in, if there must be a stronger side and a weaker side, which one would you want to be on? This question is the one that has put us in this situation.  It is obvious (and in our nature) to want to be on the strong side, but what we forget is that Goliath picked the fight. It’s okay to be stronger than others, but with great strength comes great responsibility. As a nation, we need to remember what it was that we have overcome to be where we are and endeavor to support those same ideals in others.  I’m not sure that we do that anymore, it seems like now we are only concerned with staying the strongest no matter the cost. That simple idea has filtered down to the people watching a fight at a bar and screaming for the big guy to beat the crap out of the little guy. It has filtered down into people wanting to keep immigrants out of our country. It has made us into the Goliath throwing down the gauntlet on all of the Davids of the world. There will never be a shortage of underdogs with a bit of ingenuity, bravery, and luck.

I think that we need to stand up collectively and earn our honor back. We should remember ourselves. When we see inequalities we should fight for justice, when we need or want something we should be willing to work hard to earn it honestly, and when we see a fight between David and Goliath, we should root for David, because he is the one who has all of the honor.