Baseball & Violation
As American as apple pie, baseball and violation.
A long while ago a few "future" Americans broke into the north-eastern US and took, among other things, a continent. A short while ago, the US broke into the Middle East and took, among other things, a people's way of life - under the guise of bringing about democracy and ending an evil tyrant's rule. A few weeks ago, someone broke into my Ford Escape. They took, among other things, my baseball equipment.
While Australia sits quietly, basking in the Pacific sun, the US has become a nation of uninvited thieves - true violators of all the freedoms and privileges we enjoy and tell our children about.
When I was younger - about six or seven - I took a handful of rubber bands from a neighbor's carport. It was a holiday. I had been dragged to my grandparents and I was bored; so I played peacefully in and around my grandparents front lawn. Having kicked every rock and broken every twig, I ventured into the yard belonging to the next house to the left. In the carport I found a pile of rubber bands, like the kind discarded from a daily newspaper subscription - cool. I knew that's what they were, so I took 'em. What a great bouncing ball they would make if all bound together like my granddad had taught me! Well no sooner than I had taken my find into the house to construct my poor-man's pinky ball did my mother set into me, "Raymond, where did you get those?" I was then ordered to "march right back there and apologize for stealing what didn't belong to me."
The man next door caught on quick when I stammered through tears and the humiliation of an on looking family while I handed over a wadded bunch of useless rubber bands. "Thank you," he managed to choke out, taking my prize to what was surly a countertop just inside the door wherein the moment we'd all left, they would be tossed into the garbage...more to come.
