Oh We Must Be Doin' Somethin' Right

 

My mother's people came by ship
And fought at Bunker Hill
My daddy lost a leg in France
I have his medal still
My brother served with Patton
I saw action in Algiers
Oh we must be doin' somethin' right
To last 200 years.‎

I pray my sons won't go to war
But if they must, they must
I share our country's motto
And in God I place my trust
We may have had our ups and downs
Our times of trials and fears
But we must be doin' somethin' right
To last 200 years.‎

I've lived through two depressions
And seven Dust Bowl droughts
Floods, locusts and tornadoes
But I don't have any doubts
We're all a part of history
Why Old Glory waves to show
How far along we've come 'til now
How far we've got to go.‎

It's been hard work but every time
We get into a fix
Let's think of what our children faced
In two - ought - seven - six
It's up to us, to pave the way
With our blood and sweat and tears
For we must be doin' somethin' right
To last 200 years.‎

*********

Dear Kate,

With the election result of the greatest nation, your nation, still hanging in the balance, one is prone to think politically.

And why not?  We should always be thinking politically.  One might not be wanting to always talk politically, like how I am feeling now, but one can hardly speak one's feeling without being politically minded.

So here's a song for you, my friend, about your, the greatest nation, probably ever, doing something right, to keep on being right, from the opening scene of one of the greatest movies of this greatest nation.

Of course we know, deep down, an election is not, should never be, about one single person going against another, one ultimately emerging as a "winner" and the other a "loser," but as a nation that is prone to find herself on the map of a superhero universe that she herself manufactures and exports to the world, there is nothing more nail-bitingly entertaining--which, to her, is to say, life-affirming--than the spectator sport of winning and losing.

I know more than a few people who would lock themselves up in a room with their necessary sports channels during playoff season, and there, they are in a world, the only world, they find worthy of their occupying, their true, fanatical devotion, every bit of God-given hormone given back for the greatest cause.  The winning way is the Godly way, our true religion.

So, Kate, you must have been doing something right to last you all these years?  If your nation can sing a winning song about her pithy 200+ years of winning way (for your reference, less than a quarter of the reign of the Roman Empire, but who cares, right?), you surely can come up with your own little jingle to sing praise of your blood sweat and tears?  What are the songs in your head, now?

You know you want to win.  You know you hate to lose.  You know, if you can, you would want to see--in the language of your spectator-sport nation--your "winning streak" be "extended" perpetually, beyond your time, your grave, for as long as you can devise a way to vouchsafe your legacy.  Your nation might be "fighting" with China, but her people know the path to keep on winning is to get their kids to learn Chinese now.  All good politics is Realpolitik.

Whoever "wins" this election, you can rest assured, this great nation will emerge the true winner, whichever way.  We love a politician who whines and schemes to keep on winning on behalf of us.  We don't expect the lawyer we hired to speak reason or for the other side to bring everybody closer to the truth.  We don't come for enlightenment.  We come to fuckin' win.

I've heard many in my almost-as-great nation saying how your people are stupid to have elected a man like this.  I don't think that's a very smart remark.  You folks must have been doing something right to last you all these years.

We all deserve the winners and winning ways that we picked.

Yours, Alex