For the last five days I've been away in the woods. I didn't have a phone, television, internet, radio, or a Big Mac. I didn't care what was happening elsewhere. My world was my campsite next to a small stream, a fly rod, my dog, my wife, and crystal blue mountain air. There was mosquito or two; someone was running a generator after hours; a trailer had a bright light until ten o'clock; and the wind blowing through the trees was a little noisy. I had my morning vanilla latte just to keep things normal. It was peaceful.
On the fourth of July, I went to an old fashioned parade in a town with no stop sign. I've seen the same parade almost every year of my life. It hasn't changed much in one hundred and forty nine years. U.S. Marines marched down the street carrying our flag as it waved in the wind. I thought about our freedom. I thought about what is happening to our country with those that want to do away with our Constitution. I thought of people that are struggling to put food on the table, send their kids to college, and find a job. I thought about the men and women who are in harms way in foreign lands. I thought about the media who have become loud microphones with their own agenda. They were the judge and jury in the Casey Anthony trial, not the twelve people sitting in the jury box. They wanted her tried and hung from the nearest tree. Forget the law. The media found her guilty. It felt more like the Salem Witch Trials. I don't know why Americans were glued to their televisions over this trial. The man running his generator in our campground was watching the trial on his satellite dish. It made me want gag. Most of us would have never known about the trial without the media telling us to watch it. When do we turn it off?
When I got home there was a newspaper on my driveway. The front page was filled with two murders, one suicide, a drive by shooting, and a bank robbery. Someone should invent a newspaper with only good stories, but then maybe no one wants to read that. If only I could have stayed in the woods, the noise would go away.
