to some extent, it felt a heck of a lot better (respectively) back when Mtv actually played music videos...all night long & into morning, when radio stations & storefronts were owned by mom & pop, ...& the Prez at least attempted to appear........oh forgetaboutit.  it's pretty happenin now pending the hour of the day and whose sharing it with you, but you've got to admit there's a [fackin SQUEEZE your head state of unrest &] dread that we co-exist with more now than ever ~~ & it doesn't really feel to me like fear of terror from outside our shores.  not with our military & recourses.  our soldiers are walkin-talkin badasses with electronic toys of destruction, & their gunnies & tops are salty ol' dawgs, ...if most of them were here...going to and from their duty huts and bouncin their kids on healthy/fit/able laps between the big seas, this country'd be in the august position of beautifying & counting-it’s-blessings of people & places…from sea-to-shining-sea…& that’d leave room for the rest of the planet, our groovy neighbors, to sit back & chill a bit…and perhaps come to more logical worldly terms with the [I FUGGING KILL YOU] ilk @ the heart of the interplanetary ire mill...instead of being in a constant edgy concern state that the cowboys in black hats are comin over the ridge and they’s in a rough-ridin, double-timin mood to travel the world … see new & exotic … or well-mapped & arid lands, meet new & interesting … or we go way back & that's yo problem peoples …, & blast them into kingdom come less’n they call us daddy!

 & something tells me…the plan is not to groovy back up our sea to shiny sea any time soon.  It’s naiveté…brought on by 40sum odd years of believing in amber waves of grain & liberty and justice for all.  & something else tells me I completely identify with your query.  It may have always been this way, prolly was for that matter when Jefferson was arguing semantics with the wooden teeth guy, just with far less people & cameras and a far more outwardly polite (regal) brand of comfy-chair-sittin, ass-kickin-&-name-takin, hurry-up and shake th bacon, moribund but never abating hellbound majority statesmen in the company of fewer & fewer benevolent humanitarians with wherewithal & resolve.    

…She do sting a bit.