Friday, June 15, 2007
Guess who has decided to join our ranks?
His Very Own True-Conservative-Selfness-And-Saint-Andrew-Of-The-Bleeding-Rectum-Sycophant, Lee from Right Thinking.
Let’s all welcome him with a roaring torrent of laughter, shall we? 
Gee, I wonder what he could have to say over here where nothing matters? It’s like he actually cares about others’ opinions of him or something… 
This is supposed to be a Patriot’s Journey post. Also on this year’s journey are JimK, Scott, Larry, Cosmicbabe, and Doug
But that’s not why I wanted to post today. We’re not here to talk about Lee, we’re here to talk about things that make this country great.
I wanted to mention the one thing that makes us the nation with the most potential on the planet - one that Gene Roddenberry phrased in a slightly unusual way for his original series. The concept of IDIC - Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. He meant it as an homage to Japanese culture (he had been married in Japan), and it was an awful, forced plot device designed to sell souvenirs and kids’ toys that never really went anywhere.
Hey, just because it’s a geeky way to frame it doesn’t mean that it’s a geeky concept. Think of it as “The Great Melting Pot”. We have people from all walks of life - Infinite Diversity - getting together and celebrating their shared heritage, while enjoying the differences, too. We aren’t stamped from a cookie cutter. This nation was founded by men who told the government that they had grown up under - had known their entire lives, in fact - that it was no longer good enough, and that they wanted to try something different.
We have the right to do anything we want. My grandfather was a barber. My father was a bus driver and (eventual) cab company owner. I’ve had a number of careers in my lifetime, and have even more scheduled for down the road. FWIW, I’m on my fifth career, and my five- and ten-year plan is to go to law school and pass the bar here in California. All three of the daughters are successes in their respective fields, with the eldest beginning her second career soon. There are millions of people out there who are working two jobs at once, with neither job related to the other.
It is the ability to strive and fail and start over that makes us truly great.
There are people out there who work 80-hour weeks for the privilege of putting their kids through college so that the kids (and grandkids) won’t have to work 80-hour weeks. And THAT is the American Dream - that every generation will have it just a little bit easier than the one before. Because we have the right to quit when something isn’t working to our advantage, we have the chance to try a different combination, seeing if the new meshing of diversities will result in a success.