Is the USA Twerking its future away?

Like many others who have commented on Miley Cyrus’ VMA performance this past weekend I too have some deep concerns; however, those concerns do not run in the same vein as the supposed news mavens, YouTube gurus and etiquette pundits. What currently passes for “expert” opinion on Ms. Cyrus’ performance is devoted to the “how could such a good girl go so wrong?” school of criticism technique.  After all, she was a “Disney product”, pure as “Ivory soap”.  Did you see those hip movements?  They were so sexually suggestive! The dancing; wait a minute!, what dancing? That was exhibitionism!  Miley found a way to out Madonna Madonna! Who does she think she is, prancing around in her underwear?  And the people in the audience, did you see them, with mouths gapping wide.... a true OMG moment! Did your kids see this?  What are we to tell them now? Fourteen and fifteen year olds grew up wanting to be just like Hannah Montana.   Oh, woe are we!

I have a few choice questions and comments for those who have offered their surface criticism of Miley Cyrus over the past week: Where the heck have you people been for the last 20 years?  What rock have you been sleeping under that you could not see the potential of such a performance as was given by Miley on the MTV, VMA Awards show? Have you not heard of popular music stars such as Nicki Minaj, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Beyonce, etc.?  Relative to modern day video music selections of the same hip hop genre, what in Ms Cyrus' performance or the performances of those who danced and sang with her surprised you?  Have you no awareness of the depths to which American music, culture and character has sunk?  How many of you have gone to a dance featuring songs with far worse lyrics and grinded the night away?  If we are all so oblivious to the world around us how could a “hit song” by Lady Gaga called “Pokerface” get over 162 million hits on YouTube? What a bunch of hypocrites we are becoming! If we were to hold a mirror up in the face of our society would we see the strong faces that made this nation? Or the loving ones who helped to raise us and thought we held such promise?  Or even the person we once were who dreamed great things, held inside hoping for that one break or wonderful moment when we could let our light shine?

On August the 27^th, the day after the real firestorm surrounding the Miley Cyrus VMA performance hit, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published an Op-Ed piece by journalist Juan Williams at the bottom of page A15.  The article was entitled: “Songs of the Summer of 1963 …and 2013”

( http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324619504579028691595414868.html) The article juxtaposed the aura of those folk songs so filled with hope, longing for justice and faith in the future, surrounding and accompanying Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech held on August 28, 1963 with the current genre of hip-hop selections that are filled with sex, violence, bigotry and greed. For examples of the lyrics of the time in 1963, Mr. Williams refers to the songs of Bob dylan, Joan Baez, Woody Guthrie, Johnny Cash, Sam Cooke, Curtis Mayfield and the vocal group Peter, Paul and Mary.  The WSJ  Op-Ed article is well worth reading if you have not already done so.  And, it goes a long way to explaining how far we have come from that day in 1963 to this past weekend when Miley Cyrus was led into a production for the VMAs that was at once both an affront to common decency and the epitome of the “the best” that our egocentric,  jaded,  entertainment-driven culture is capable of producing.   We have become a nation of schizophrenics fully aware of the damage we do through our base treatments of others yet craving all the more excess and hyperbole.   That is why the same pundits that castigate Miley Cyrus for her actions at the VMA show this year will probably find themselves at some nightspot this weekend grinding the night away to the sound of Lil Wayne as he croons about “hoes” and bitches”.  That is also why we all need to seriously rethink the direction of our culture and our society. 

Rescuing Alice from the Labyrinth

Today, I am just "venting".

I have a running love-hate relationship with the financial community. It is the same sort as that Lewis Carroll's Alice experienced with the Mad Hatter whose presence was necessary in her travels through the labyrinth but whose intentions were not completely pure. My frustration of the moment stems from the hassle encountered in approval of a loan. You see, our family was one those that had to resort to a short sale of its home during the recent "Great Recession". Some statistics indicate that as many as 30% of all home sales between the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2013 were either auctioned homes from foreclosures or short sales. Homes that had been valued in the high six figures and that had depreciated in value by as much as 20% of their 2007 appraisal value by late 2008 were selling for as much as another 39% below their new valuation in foreclosure sales and as much as another 23% if sold through short sales, according to RealtyTrac^tm (http://money.cnn.com/2013/02/28/real_estate/short-sales/index.html) Great swaths of America were negatively impacted and areas from California and Arizona through the southwest to the central Great Lakes of Michigan, Illinois and Ohio to the Middle Atlantic states of New Jersey and New York to the Southeast states of Georgia, Alabama and Florida. Literally hundreds of thousands of sales were involved and millions of people were affected.  Most of those affected were good, hard-working people who were caught in the “perfect storm” of financial circumstances that resulted in the “Great Recession” And most, like us, are doing the best they can to turn the corner and contribute positively to the growth of a stronger American economy. Yet, like us, they are continually frustrated by new challenges in the form of revamped bank credit restrictions and credit bureaus that use antiquated algorithms that were suited for the more stable financial world that existed before the Great Recession.  The result has been a “chicken and egg” driven economy.  Which comes first: the chicken or the egg?  The economy needs buyers (70% of America’s GDP is from personal purchases) who depend upon credit to make their purchases but who are stymied by the new banking regulations and the old algorithms used by the three major credit bureaus.  It has gotten so crazy that, even if you have a nearly 30 year  perfect history of making payments but you are one of those whose home was sold as a short sale you are to be considered a  “bad credit risk”.  Interestingly, economists scratch their heads and wonder why the economy is not healing faster.  It just seems to be sputtering along, stuck in perpetual second gear.  Well, it seems to me that greater effort needs to be expended to help those with historically good credit histories get back into the purchasing and income generating economies as quickly as possible.  That’s not an easy task in today’s economic and political climate. Neither is anywhere close to what they were 30 years ago.  Thirty years ago most of that 70% of American GDP was taking place on “main street USA” – not so today.  Thirty years ago there was still a consensus of opinion that what was good for America was of greater importance than what was good for the Democratic or the Republican parties – not so today.  Our economy is more restricted and is influenced to a far greater degree by forces beyond our own borders.  Our political parties have turned their every four year battle for the right to dictate policy into siege campaigns hell-bent on proving the other party wrong or tripping the other party up regardless to the cost in economic progress, human suffering or national prestige. The end result is that money flows away from main street and away from the people whose purchases and credit could help to heal and rebuild a stronger American infrastructure.  And while everyone is fixated upon whether the Queen of Hearts or the Queen of Clubs will win their campaign for dominance there is the very real potential that “Alice” will be forever lost in the labyrinth.