Changes - Patriotic And Otherwise
I was casually humming the national anthem the other day (as I am wont to do - as well as whistling the "Switched-On Bach" version of "Wachet Auf" and Los Amadores version of "Tenderly") and considered the line "and the flag was still there." Yup. Sounds good. Ft. McHenry, flag still flying. All good.
But I thought, perhaps in this new era of energy crisis and brouhaha, the production of energy assumes a whole new mantle of patriotic glory. Especially with the gub-mint dumping subsidy money into ethanol production. Corn into alcohol. How patriotic is that? In point of fact, it's been done in the red(necked), white(men) and blue (Ridge) Applachians since the memory of man runneth not to the contrary. Moonshiners are the new oilmen. Jed Clampett wouldn't have to shoot up that Texas tea, Granny could just commence to makin' nigh onto it in her copper kettle.
Which brings me back around to the anthemic words I quoted above. Maybe there should be an alternate version of that line: "And the still was flagged there." I'm just sayin' is all.