What Hal Southern, a Country and Western Composer and Musician, has to Say

Some day in the not too distant future, historians and scientists will look at the physical and written remains of our present-day civilization and shake their heads in total disbelief, unable to comprehend how an advanced culture such as ours could totally disintegrate in a mass of crime, social strife, wars, walfarism and total lack of involvement of the people in their own destiny.

You would think, that in our present state of confusion, both national and international, we would take heed of the lessons of history. History does repeat itself and we are going through a phase of permissiveness, self-gratification, racial disintegration, violence and morel destruction that can only lead to self-destruction on a scale of unparalleled in history.

Isn't it about time we stand up and be counted? Do we want the kind of country where it is considered square to be patriotic, stupid to be honest, insane to follow the Golden Rule, where you are considered Establishment if you work hard, raise a family and pay your bills? Is it wrong to be clean, literate, thrifty and have short hair-cuts? Is it wrong to like country music [depends on what kind! ~Susi], tunes that have a melody, lyrics that say "I love you", rhythms that want to make you dance with a partner, or are we square because we don't like ear-shattering, wild, psychedelic sounds with obscene lyrics and clothes to match?

This nation wasn't made great by unwashed lazy hippies, crybaby welfarism or racial minorities begging for a handout. The nation was built on the honest hard work, thrift, guts, desires, and needs of Irish, Jew, Negro, Mexican, Chinese and endless other people. Common people who had the guts to be uncommon, people of all races, creeds and nationalities, people with one common bond - freedom. In their hearts they must have known that American was the last stand for the individual, the last chance to justify man's existence on earth.

Is it wrong to ask that our communications media be a little more impartial in its treatment of things patriotic? All too often, it seems that some radio stations, for instance, will not play anything they labal as patriotic or controversial, but will turn around and play protest and anti-Establishment records all day long. Is it controversial to say on record that you like being an American, are proud for the chance to continue being an American?

Why should Capitalism, Free Enterprise, and Conservative be dirty words? Is it so wrong to want to make a profit on honest endeavors? What is wrong with making money and reinvesting it in a strong America. This great nation wasn't built on a cradle-to-the-grave philosophy, nor will it survive with the government always acting as a big brother. Remember, Uncle Sam is your uncle-not your dad!

Well, I insist on being counted. I'm four-square for Mom, apple pie, the Bible, and the Flag. I'm for free enterprise and, last, but never least, I'm for freedom the whole world envies, a freedom that makes people all over the whole world risk their lives to achieve, a freedom that allows us the strength to have inscribed on the Statue of Liberty:

Give me you tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breath free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!