Friday.....America.....Hot Diggity, Dog Ziggity

As a child I would play with my toy soldiers while my parents had friends over and I would watch Perry Como along with them on television. As a teen, my cousin and I would run about his house while Bobby Vinton songs played on the radio. We visited Canonsburg, Pennsylvania today for their annual Oktoberfest and thoughts of these two entertainers came to mind, for it's their hometown. How could it not come to mind as you drive by Bobby Vinton Drive and walk past Perry Como's statue. We sat down to eat and I had wiener schnitzel, German pancakes and a good German beer that I failed to get the name of. A conversation started around the table. One young lady had her four month old daughter with her. She said her husband was probably enjoying Oktoberfest in Germany right then for he serves in our Air Force.  I thanked her for his, and her, service to our country. Another gentleman joined in as we talked about Como and Vinton. I said that it was something to have "two" from the same town.  He corrected me, "three" he said. "Oh, who is the third?" "Dan Block" was the answer. Not wanting to disparage the third well known person from Canonsburg I said "I'm not familiar with that name." "That's me," he answered. He got me on that one. I asked him if I could use that sometime and also if I could use his name in a blog. It really was a nice time. Good music, good food and a perfect day. We had a nice conversation with a couple at a booth sponsored by an organization that tried to keep the German language and traditions alive. He wore a Bavarian Alpine hat with over a dozen pins on it. He said "welcome home," which I immediately recognized as one Vietnam vet's welcome to another, for he saw my pins. My wife is of German heritage and I am primarily English. I mentioned this and was reminded of the German  lineage in British royalty. I love these small towns in Western Pennsylvania like Canonsburg which  has a steel and coal heritage. These towns try to retain their European traditions but are as American as as you can get.  A Vietnam vet in full Bavarian dress, proud of his heritage and also his military service in defense of his nation is a fine example of this. A young mom whose husband is off to war protecting her freedoms is another. This is the unity in diversity that has made this country great. It's the diversity in place of unity that is tearing it apart, where a heritage doesn't adorn the American it conceals him, if he is there at all. I often find myself thinking back to those days when Perry Como was the big entertainment on television but I know very well that going back isn't the answer to our problems, rather going forward in the full understanding of human nature, or how we, like Newton's Second Law of thermodynamics or universal principle of decay, go downhill in our faithfulness, our vigilance... we forget He who is our benefactor and we charge mindlessly into narcissism as we wile away our time on Facebook. Germans know very well how far a nation can fall if it does not remain vigilant against demagoguery and the Japanese realize how fortunate they are to have brought war upon a people that were merciful in victory. We have flirted with demagoguery here and will soon see if we have also forgotten Tripoli, the Argonne Forest, Iwo, Inchon, Khe Sahn and the wars on rock and sand today where our military is every bit as faithful to our defense even though not fully backed by its own people. We watched an old classic film the other evening called Night Train To Munich. There was a scene where Rex Harrison, who played a British spy in a Nazi uniform, in order to retain his camouflage, defended freedom under the Nazis as much better than freedom in England for it is perfectly ordered and controlled. Our freedoms are becoming ordered and our liberties controlled. America is made of small towns, a fact that the ruling class may patronize but may also have underestimated their choking on that patronizing and spitting it out.