Opinion > Star Staff
Tweets on the horizon
By Ken Byler, Up the Creek
Heard the news? The world was supposed to end last week. According to the Long Count calendar, the world began in 3114 B.C. Some say ancient Mayans predicted the world would end on Dec. 21. A lot of folks are feeling apprehensive this last week of December, but I don't believe it's because of an ancient Mayan prediction.
There's no doubt the world is changing and graybeards like me are falling behind. I read someplace that the Pope Twittered a New Year's tweet. In my youth, Twittering and tweets were something only birds and dry flies did.
I'm not sure how I wound up with a Facebook account, but I've got one. I must have mashed a button on my computer at one time. I get notices that someone has poked me or posted something on a wall. I never respond because I don't know how, nor am I in a hurry to learn. I recently got a notice that three people had "unfriended" me. The notice said I could sign up for a service and find out who they were. I wasn't concerned about who "unfriended" me. My question was why only three? I thought there would've been a whole lot more.
The social media is becoming more antisocial and it appears the country has moved into an age where bullying is something bad about you being posted on Facebook. I'm starting to feel like Chief John Big Tree when he said to John Wayne as Nathan Brittles in the movie "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon": "We're too late, Nathan, let's go smoke, get drunk, hunt buffalo together ... Hallelujah."
It appears that a lot of folks aren't too optimistic about the arrival of 2013. The results of the last election mean America will be an Obama nation for the next four years. The super rich will still be super rich, the poor will still be poor and the middle class will be trying to hang onto their businesses or government jobs.
Recent events have cast a gloom across the country and some of our citizenry are suffering through terrible ordeals. I can't think of anything more heartwrenching than losing a small child. But mourning for the little ones massacred in Newtown, Conn., by a teenage basket case is being turned into a gun control debate by those who "never waste a good crisis" and those who feel the Second Amendment was written so they could own a bazooka.
Folks are still homeless almost two months after Hurricane Sandy tore up the northeast coast. Americans should thank our friends and allies from overseas for sending aid, food and supplies to help overcome the ravages of that storm. Number one on the list is ... is; come to think of it, there's not one country on that list.
There're 192 nations on the planet and America sends money to 150 of them. But America's charitable nature to other countries seems only to tick them off. The prevalent feeling in much of the world is that America's riches have come from cheating poorer countries out of their fair share of the world's wealth. None of 'em seem to like America anymore.
It's only my opinion, but it seems as though a lot of Americans also don't like America anymore. The populace has been packaged into hyphenated American cliques toting loads of resentments, sunk to class and gender warfare, gone six trillion deeper in debt, with greed and envy seemingly the prevailing national virtues.
The country can survive another four years of President Obama. But I don't know if it can survive another four years of the attitude that got him re-elected.
Meanwhile I'm gonna try to learn how to communicate in the 140 characters of Twitter so that in 2013, I can use the social media to tweet my column to those who "unfriended" me in 2012.
Happy New Year!
Ken Byler is a Star columnist, an author and an artist. Email him at kbyler@tx.rr.com
There's no doubt the world is changing and graybeards like me are falling behind. I read someplace that the Pope Twittered a New Year's tweet. In my youth, Twittering and tweets were something only birds and dry flies did.
I'm not sure how I wound up with a Facebook account, but I've got one. I must have mashed a button on my computer at one time. I get notices that someone has poked me or posted something on a wall. I never respond because I don't know how, nor am I in a hurry to learn. I recently got a notice that three people had "unfriended" me. The notice said I could sign up for a service and find out who they were. I wasn't concerned about who "unfriended" me. My question was why only three? I thought there would've been a whole lot more.
The social media is becoming more antisocial and it appears the country has moved into an age where bullying is something bad about you being posted on Facebook. I'm starting to feel like Chief John Big Tree when he said to John Wayne as Nathan Brittles in the movie "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon": "We're too late, Nathan, let's go smoke, get drunk, hunt buffalo together ... Hallelujah."
It appears that a lot of folks aren't too optimistic about the arrival of 2013. The results of the last election mean America will be an Obama nation for the next four years. The super rich will still be super rich, the poor will still be poor and the middle class will be trying to hang onto their businesses or government jobs.
Recent events have cast a gloom across the country and some of our citizenry are suffering through terrible ordeals. I can't think of anything more heartwrenching than losing a small child. But mourning for the little ones massacred in Newtown, Conn., by a teenage basket case is being turned into a gun control debate by those who "never waste a good crisis" and those who feel the Second Amendment was written so they could own a bazooka.
Folks are still homeless almost two months after Hurricane Sandy tore up the northeast coast. Americans should thank our friends and allies from overseas for sending aid, food and supplies to help overcome the ravages of that storm. Number one on the list is ... is; come to think of it, there's not one country on that list.
There're 192 nations on the planet and America sends money to 150 of them. But America's charitable nature to other countries seems only to tick them off. The prevalent feeling in much of the world is that America's riches have come from cheating poorer countries out of their fair share of the world's wealth. None of 'em seem to like America anymore.
It's only my opinion, but it seems as though a lot of Americans also don't like America anymore. The populace has been packaged into hyphenated American cliques toting loads of resentments, sunk to class and gender warfare, gone six trillion deeper in debt, with greed and envy seemingly the prevailing national virtues.
The country can survive another four years of President Obama. But I don't know if it can survive another four years of the attitude that got him re-elected.
Meanwhile I'm gonna try to learn how to communicate in the 140 characters of Twitter so that in 2013, I can use the social media to tweet my column to those who "unfriended" me in 2012.
Happy New Year!
Ken Byler is a Star columnist, an author and an artist. Email him at kbyler@tx.rr.com
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