Images of M Street

So I went for a drive early this morning, in the vain hope that there might be a place open where I could get my alignment and wheel balance checked. Yeah, right, on July 4th. I know. I took a different route back home, along M Street. Now I didn't even realize there was an M Street in Sacramento, since in my part of town, it goes L, Capitol, N. It was a nice drive. The houses are beautiful, and at 10 am on a holiday, the road was full of people biking and walking. Couples, families, all being together. A few kids were in the street setting of fireworks already... more of the noisy kind than the visual, I imagine. I drove past a nice park that I never knew existed. Then I started seeing people with patriotic themed hats. It makes me wonder if they felt truly patriotic or if they were just into the holiday hype. I remembered watching Pearl Harbor some weeks back and being awed over the patriotism of that era. People going to war because they felt a duty to their country, they felt they had a country worth fighting for. People proud to be American. I've never felt that way. Is it just that they didn't have the media deluge that we have today that kept them blissfully ignorant of the state of the country and the shortcomings of the President? I remember hearing that FDR's wheelchair was never seen on film, he was always photographed sitting behind his desk, or he would go to the effort to stand so as not to appear weak. These days, we're suspicious of a President sitting behind a desk for other reasons. The respect that was once given to the executive office is gone. Anyone who thinks George W is given his due respect needs to tune into Comedy Central at 10:00 on a Thursday. Now I'm not a big fan of the man, but I seriously think that this is indicitave of some of the major problems with our country. Do I have a solution? Do I know what might make the US a country I can be proud of? No. I'm still plotting to run away to Ireland. But maybe it's something worth thinking about.