Changing World

It’s late night and I’m watching Live From the Artists Den on PBS. Tonight Grace Potter and the Nocturnals are performing from New York’s Bryant Park. I like Grace Potter. Grace can belt out a song. Plus, Grace is gorgeous. How gorgeous? Imagine: if Kaley Cuoco could sing and play the Hammond B3, Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer Electric Piano and electric and acoustic guitars. And not to put too fine a point on it, but Grace has great legs, as she well knows. (Ever seen Grace wear an outfit that didn’t show off her legs? No.)  But tonight Grace and her bass player Catherine Popper are competing to see who can show more leg. And Catherine is winning. But never mind that. I’m writing about something else.

Earlier this this evening I left my house to walk the tree-lined streets of my neighborhood. The setting sun was already at the horizon and dusk was falling. Birds twittered in the trees and the smell of honeysuckle floated on the evening air. It was almost like an evening from long ago. Almost, but not. I could hear girls shouting and hollering a block away. I rounded the block and passed a group of teen girls talking to each other. They looked to be in the 13 to 15 age range. As I walked past them I caught part of their conversation. It was fuckin’ this and fuckin’ that. One girl loudly proclaimed to the neighborhood, “I hate it when somebody takes my fuckin’ cell phone and fuckin’ calls somebody …” And on it went. (I wondered, “Do you kiss your mama with that mouth?”)  A shrill rant by someone’s little darlin’. I’ve heard plenty of profanity. My old man’s favorite was “goddamn” and he used it liberally. But at least he used it at home and at work, not in public places. He never used profanity on the street for the neighbors to hear, or in restaurants, or around strangers. My mother often told him that profanity was a sign of a poor vocabulary. Maybe so. But today’s casual and public use of profanity is a sign of something else.

Anyway, I got home and turned on the TV. The local news was telling me about a beloved and respected local teacher (male) who was just arrested for having Internet sex with a girl younger than sixteen. Everyone in his neighborhood (at least, everyone they put on the air) claims to be shocked. Shocked! I didn’t know the man but I wouldn’t have been shocked. Heck, teachers having sex with students is so prevalent these days it’s almost trendy.

The “Tea Party” people say they want to take back their country. I have bad news for them. The country they want to take back is long gone. It’s blowin’ in the wind now.