Steve - Part 2

I could make out voices not too far away, but could not clearly hear what they are saying. They were speaking in hushed tones, so they had to be in uncharted territory. Hell, so was I. I died trying to fight a guy that shouldn’t exist. And ya know what? I was pretty cool with dying back there. I tried to do the right thing, and that was enough for me. I went out on a high note. Now I’m back here? For what, to die again?

A jerk in a white lab coat came over and began talking to me, telling me that while it was miraculous that I was alive, I may not survive another injury like that, etcetera and etcetera. All I could think was “may not”? I shouldn’t have survived this one! But I remembered that when I was a kid my uncle pulled me aside and told me “When you die, your life will begin”. I may have been only eight, but I knew crazy talk when I heard it. But then again, apparently not. I remember nodding my head and then breaking my ass to stay far away from good old Uncle James. I wish now that I asked him what the hell he was talking about, told him how being cryptic was not cool. But there is nothing like first hand experience, I suppose.

I tried to sit up, but found that I was strapped to the gurney like some type of mental patient. The guards who had their backs to me were now facing me, guns trained on my head. The doctor or whoever he was went on to talk about how I could be the secret weapon that could stop the destroyer, blah, blah, blah. I couldn’t believe that he was still talking. I just laid back (what else could I do strapped to that table?) and let the guy ramble on.

When he finally finished trying to explain what he knew nothing about, he unhooked my straps and I sat up slowly, as I was advised to do by the guy in charge of the gun wielding soldiers. He said that he was General so and so, and that he was in charge of the operation going forward. So there was a scientist and now the military. If movies taught me anything, it was that the combination of these two elements did not bode well for anybody.

As the General continued to talk, I spent the time wondering if I could get a drink anywhere nearby. I’m sure that my distraction was not in any way a good thing, as he could be telling me something important, but I just didn’t care. I was given a uniform, with my very own camo pants and jacket, and a black t-shirt. The boots that they gave looked terrible as well as too small, so I asked them to get me some sneaks instead. While I waited for my footwear, I changed into the new gear as the general kept talking about a plan to head the destroyer off before he was able to leave the area. He also stated that the military was barely slowing him down and that I was the last, desperate hope. I guess that they had to be desperate considering I was killed the first time. But I decided that worst case, I’d be killed again, and it would stick this time. Or I would save the world and then everyone back home would see that I did something great, and would feel proud or jealous or something. Huh. I can’t believe I called that place “home.”

The general wrapped up his dialogue and handed me a gun. I laughed at him like he had to be kidding just as the soldier returned with my sneaks. I took them from him, but hated the fact that they were Jordans. I didn’t want to go up against that thing in my socks, so I put them on and left the tent or “command center bravo” as it was being referred to, heading in the direction of all the gun shots and screaming. I looked back to see the general and the gun carrying guards now saluting me. The scientist was there too, only he looked worried. Whether it was because he wanted to tag along to see the action or some other reason, I don’t know. But an unhappy scientist was also not a good thing.

The chaos of the destroyer’s attack was getting quieter as I got closer. That had to mean that he had pretty much killed everyone that was attacking him, trying to run away or just happened to be watching his rampage. As I got closer to a cross street, a tank flew by. As I knew that tanks did not yet have any type of airplane caliber propulsion system (and even if they did they would not be upside down) I guessed that the jerk causing all of these problems was still up and about. I turned the corner, and there he was. He was at least seven feet tall, had to be. And he was looking at me, smiling. Like he had just won the lottery or got a free meal at Denny’s. While still wearing that smile he started walking towards me, his fists clenched.

Ugh. My day was about to get longer….

End part two

Steve

The steel rod was rammed into my stomach, and exited through my back. I could feel my blood draining away, and the flow of it intensified when I moved, so I stopped moving. I just dropped to my knees and waited. My breathing became a little more labored, and my hearing started to go. The screams and the all of the gunfire started to sound more and more distant. I looked around and all of the chaos, people running this way and that, other screaming for help that wasn’t coming, looked like it was happening not in front of me, but someplace else. I turned my head again, and the man that impaled me with the rod was talking about something, but I couldn’t really hear him anymore. I didn’t really care what he was saying through that smile of his. I just thought that his beard was stupid and I wanted to tell him that but my voice wouldn’t come. I don’t even think he noticed I was trying to say anything to him. He was just too thrilled with the sound of his own voice, I suppose. I looked away from him to see a little boy crying, probably looking for a pet, toy or family member. I tried to get up to help him, willed my body to move, but it didn’t listen to me. I just stayed on my knees, feeling more and more rested. I looked down to see the pool of blood was larger now. My jeans were now a dark maroon instead of blue, and the light was getting dimmer. I figured that the sun was going down, but how could that be when it was just ten in the morning? My breathing was almost non-existent now. I didn’t care. I was finally getting to rest once and for all. I was finished, it was done. Let someone else…

I'm annoyed.

I know that I was dead, and have no idea why I am now staring at a ceiling. I turned my head to see that I was surrounded by military personnel. Their backs were to me, so I figured that I was being guarded. So not only am I alive, I am also being held prisoner.

I am really annoyed right now.

*End Part One*

Politics

I begin this by saying that I feel all politicians, no matter what they say, have their own agenda. Be it a ridiculous financial windfall when they get out of the office that they hold, or are using the topic of the moment to fuel some type of agenda. But I do believe that they should at least have a chance to prove that their campaign platform was not full of lies on top of falsehoods.

Since the President has been in office, there have been all kinds of representatives from the Republican Party and other conservative venues (FOX) that have jumped out of the woodwork to criticize him at every turn. I understand that this is the nature of politics in any arena, but seriously? The country is in the shape that it is in due to 8 YEARS OF REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP!!! Republicans were voted out of office because of the mess that was created by them, for reasons truly only known to them. Now a Democrat is in office trying to make changes to something that can not be fixed overnight (the economy) and every move he makes is touted as ‘wrong’ or ‘damaging to the country’.

Maybe the President doesn’t have the answers. Maybe his ideas are incorrect and won’t pan out. But he and his officers deserve the chance to try and repair the mess made by those in office before them that were too greedy to care what was going on or to stupid to realize what was happening.

Prejudice, Animation Style

I will never understand the adult aversion to animated content, otherwise known as “cartoons”. The pre-conceived notion that an animated show is “low-brow” never really made too much sense to. Where The Simpsons are widely accepted by the public and critics alike, if you have no children, are above the age of 10 and still watch Spongebob Squarepants, you are looked at like a freak. I suppose that cartoons have the stigma that they do simply because the majority of them are dumbed down ridiculously. Simply because many of the shows are aimed at children, they are either constructed as either a half hour commercial or written as if the intended audience has the IQ of 4.

I grew up with G.I. Joe, Transformers, He-Man, The Smurfs and zillions of other poorly written animated tripe. But I did enjoy some of that tripe, and realize now that they were just commercials. G.I. Joe was the most effective commercial for me; I could watch the cartoon, and then I could get the toys and reenact what I had just seen? Get me my dad’s wallet and let’s go shopping. Transformers and He-Man had toys too, but they didn’t really do that much for me. And I remember The Smurfs had a cereal, but I was more of a pancakes kid so they could keep their blue cereal and go someplace. This marriage of show and toy is still true today, with shows like Dora the Explorer, Thomas the Tank Engine or Ben 10 that have extensive product lines so that fun never has to stop. And it is this unholy union that I believe causes many adults to feel that cartoons are a kids’ business, and the only way you should be watching a cartoon is if you have kids.

That’s crap.

I think that a big issue is that most simply have not seen a cartoon since either they grew up or since their kids grew up. So while that they may know of The Simpsons and South park, which may mainly be due to the fact that they are broadcast in prime time, they know nothing of The Venture Brothers, which is possibly the one of the best half hours on television. There are even many animated shows that are aimed at children by the networks, but are written for an older audience or at the very least, are not written in an insulting fashion. Say what you want, but the version of DC Comic’s character Batman as represented in the cleverly titled Batman: The Animated Series (and all of the shows spawned from it*), Gargoyles (from Disney!**) and the old Warner Bros cartoons dealt with some pretty adult material. The shows based on the DC Comics dealt with everything from brutal revenge for the loss of a loved one to a hero contemplating the upside of genocide. Gargoyles dealt with themes of betrayal, loss and success through manipulation, which was new ground for an animated show put on television from Disney. And as for the Warner Bros cartoons, I remember seeing an interview with the Warner Bros animators and they simply acknowledged that they drew what they wanted to see on screen. This meant shotguns to the face, cross-dressing rabbits, smoking, drinking and a host of other no-no’s in kids programming today. The Warner cartoons were not even edited for content until recently.

The sad thing is that this affliction seems more prevalent to American adults than the adults of other countries. Those of foreign nations seem readily able to embrace animation as simply an entertainment medium instead of child’s play. I could go on about the different types of shows represented by Japanese animation alone, but that is a rant for another time. Americans are cool with the latest release from Pixar for the most part, but an all new animated version of Wonder Woman coming out on DVD simply gets placed next to the Barbie DVD’s and is summarily ignored.***

Will people ever change their opinions in this matter? I don’t know. My mom used to hate the mere idea of Batman and Superman, and looked to have no use for cartoons in general after my brother, sister and I grew up. She now watches The Venture Brothers regularly, and has watched multiple episodes of Batman: TAS, Justice League Unlimited and Aqua Teen Hunger Force. For a long time, she was the most hoity-toity person that I knew. But if she changed, maybe other people can too.

*from the success of Batman: The Animated Series came Batman Beyond, Superman: The Animated Series, The Zeta Project, Justice League and Justice League Unlimited.

**the first 2 seasons of the show were great, then the stories took a turn for the worst, introducing a time travel element, the main characters long lost daughter and other ridiculousness

***I actually saw the Wonder Woman DVD in a display next to a Barbie dressed as Wonder Woman in a toy section, and cautioned a mother that thought of getting the disc to rent it first. She didn’t think that there could be anything there that was damaging or inappropriate. Wonder if she still felt that way after the first beheading…