Just Watched An Old Documentary And My Heart Really Really HURTS!!

[ChiciB1]

It hurts because I remember an American spirit that has been gone for far far too long! At least a spirit that I once felt, a belief that made me PROUD to be an American, but these days have faded and almost disappeared!

The Documentary?? Do You Believe In Miracles -- Hockey! The 1980 Olympics when America beat the Russians! I'm no hockey fan having lived in the south most of my life, but just watching this team who beat the Russians and went on to win a Gold Metal for America smacked me in the face like a wet dish rag! I have many many memories of years gone by, of political events and elections lost, but I don't think I have ever felt less optimism than I do now. I don't know what happened or how we got to this place we are now, but most of all I DON'T KNOW HOW to raise myself above it anymore!

I should be rejuvenated by what I just saw, but unfortunately it only made me feel a tremendous loss and I just sat there and cried!! Cried because that team was so WONDERFUL, but cried because my country has become something I no longer understand.

I just had to share this for myself. Share it because I know that despite many obstacles America could rise above and be proud. I no longer feel that way and I feel very very lost in a land that I've always called my home.

[MnFats]

1. yeah, people were amazed...the children's crusade...

since so many of those guys were from around here,,,,it was absolute euphoria for weeks!
so sad to Lose Herb Brooks a while back. A great Ameriican.

[ChiciB1]

2. Euphoria... A GREAT Word And One That I Would LOVE To Feel

one more time before it's my time to go! No, I'm not THAT old, but I am a Boomer and I guess I'm feeling much too melancholy right now. I need to "get over it" I know, and buck up a bit, but it sure does feel lonesome at times!

[Bobbieo]

4. Yeah - I remember that hockey game. I does bring back some great memories.

ChiciB1 - I am also feeling very down these days and wonder if it is a trend just among us DUers. Somehow I don't think so. It is like all of us in this country are waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I had a similar feeling of euphoria last year after the Nov. election when we Dems supposedly took back Congress but that feeling has faded away.

I just received a post from an ardent one time, very vocal conservative writer who is strangely silent on politics and wants to send me something for my Native Unity blog pertaining to the Shoshone Indian Tribe. So it is not just us Demos!!!!

[ChiciB1]

7. Strange That You Bring Up Native Americans... Who Talks About Them These Days???

I'm not a native, but I am a member of the Seminole Indian tribe of Southwest Florida by choice! I joined them a long time ago because I believe in their spirituality. I would love to go to a REAL Pow-Wow some day and see it up close and personal, but have yet to experience one. I've been to some small ones and danced with them with my heart. I've read most of Mary Summer Rain's books and she like me was brought up as a Catholic. As with so many things in life, her husband found another woman, but she is writing again. What are we losing today is a tragedy and I don't know what to do to do anymore. I try very hard to instill in my kids and grand-kids the remnants of a Democracy that I truly believed in, but it's been more and more difficult as time goes by. I tell myself that "we are still here" but it doesn't always take away the emptiness that I feel.

We have a chocolate labrador retriever and we named her Shawnee after the Shawnee tribe, but I always find it strange that far too many people spell her name incorrectly and don't understand the Genesis of her name. If I'm not wrong the Shawnees originated around Kansas, but I could be wrong. She was born in S. Dakota and I want to visit there some day and trace her lineage. I wanted her to have an Indian name and should have called her Dakota, but it seemed like that was more of a male gendered name. Anyway, most people don't "get" Shawnee and spell it Shawney.

I would like to thank you for your response, it doesn't change the world but it makes me know that others understand what I'm talking about.

PEACE & LOVE... it's the BEST we can do!

[Bobbieo]

11. ChichiB1 - I am of Mohawk extraction and have had my Native Unity blog

for almost 5 years now. http://nativeunity.blogspot.com. The idea of the blog was to try to bring a sense of unity and identity among the 400 plus tribes on the North American continent - Turtle Island.

I started out in 2003 with some 10 viewers a day, if I was lucky. That number now averages about 125 to 150 per day - not much when it comes to the expanse of the Internet, but it gives me a sense of purpose in my old age and a feeling that perhaps I am helping people to become more aware of the importance of Native Americans in this country.

[ChiciB1]

12. Well, I'm Really Glad That You Decided To Reply... I'm Going To Check It Out

to perhaps reconnect with the intensity I felt about 6 years ago. Since then I've been entrenched in the crap that has pervaded our lives and have been trying to help the Restoration of our country. And native Americans have so many answers that have survived throughout.

So thank you again...

[blues90]

6. Anytime I hear music or see films before 9/11

I become a bit depressed , I thought somehow that the things of the past would lift me up but I have found they bring me down because I come out of the trance of the past and I find what I'm left to deal with now .

I am an older boomer and miss alot from the past . I find it difficult to pick up my guitar because tunes from the past ring out from the strings .

I do realize it was far from a perfect world back then but at least there appeared to be hope of improving . In many ways this country has died to me .

[ChiciB1]

8. You Are NOT ALONE... In Many Ways Going Back Makes It So

much more difficult to deal with what we have today! That's why it hurts so very much!! We KNOW what it feels like to be optimistic but today that optimism seems to have died!

How do we teach those who come after us how to "feel" what we did???

[blues90]

10. Good question .

I wish there were a way to transfer past feelings of optimism to the ones who have not felt it . Perhaps the one who have not felt what we have do have their own optimistic perspective , I don;t know what that would be from my old eyes , perhaps I fail to see it , I do hope it exists .

I wonder many times since I really have no contact with the youth these days what they hope for , I have heard callers on Malloys youth night voicing the same concerns I would have .

I do know what we have now is much worse than ever before both in the global sense and on the home front . Many of the young know their futures are in question many with college degrees can't find work .

I imagine many teachers of today are much younger than I so they would leave the past out or would be stopped from teaching it , civics class seem to be a thing of the past .

I really don't know where to find hope these days , you need something to hold onto to push you along in this day and age , I have not found this yet . There is a sense of lost community and a separated society and a separation from reality for me at least .

[ChiciB1]

14. I Share Everything You Say... My Difference Is That I DO Have Contact

with the youth of today and some things I've heard from them is complexing to me. I had one kid ask me if Julius Caesar was a "real" person and wondering if what they say actually happened ed, really happened. But his family was "into" the conservative point of view. What does that say???

Now that I've begun to dig deeper into this subject, I feel I lost something and don't know where or how to find it again. That sucks to me!

[Captain Hilts]

3. Our kids vs. Their pros. What a rush that was. In USSR two months later...

dissidents would come up to my party and say in fractured English, "we're glad your hockey team won."

Yeah, it meant a LOT.

[ChiciB1]

5. Really?? I Never Knew That! Amazing After All....

I did hear a comment from one of the Russian players in the documentary stating that he was sorry they lost, but was happy for the "kids" because they really wanted to win.

The Russians were over-confident and so used to winning that they simply let their guard down. It's such an inspiring story and one that re-surfaces from time to time. Let's NEVER forget what America can do!!!

[Captain Hilts]

9. The NEXT BEST THING to that hockey game in sports...was Old Dominion vs. Soviet National basketball

December 1980.

The Old Dominion women were national champions and had their new recruit, 6'8" Anne Donovan at center, moving Inge Nissen 6'5" to power forward. Nancy Lieberman at point. The "team from Mars" they were so good.

Nissen's foul shots tied the game right before the half. The full Norfolk Scope went apeshit as she made the foul shots. Over 10K people there - a record for women's basketball in the states.

Seven foot plus Semenova came into the game and dwarfed ODU's front line, but boy, was she an immobile player. The Soviets brought in a completely fresh line up in after the half and Nissen and Lieberman eventually fouled out.

But it was the closest game the Soviet women had had in over 20 years. Yes, they'd been undefeated that long. An amazing event.

[ChiciB1]

13. It'd Great To Hear Of These Things That Were Phenom... But Overlooked.

If we are not informed by some of this stuff, and living in the SOUTH... hockey isn't something that this area thinks about on a regular basis. Perhaps surfing or for the tourists those kites you get to fly up with. But I must say that I appreciate your point of view because it teaches me about the lifestyle of people who don't live in my climate. I tell my husband, some day I'm hoping to have to see Oregon with the hope that it's still a really nice place.

My heart is still hurting because we are losing too much.