Our heroine Melinda prefers being in the West because she feels freer there -- fewer restraints and conventions to live with. However, even in Wyoming, it is not entirely a carefree Arcadia. This is because in the co-ed bunkhouse there is the television, and some of the buckeroos insist on watching the news. And, amazingly, Sixty Minutes. Melinda's attitude may be summarized as, "I'll give those geezers five minutes, no more!"
As a member of Generation Y, Melinda has become increasingly aware of the creeping influence of government into people's lives, and she didn't see this as good. What about a little old-fashioned individualism? She didn't want to be fenced in by some suits within the Beltway! Now Melinda was not some hidebound reactionary, with unfounded prejudices. As a person in the bunkhouse rumored to have a vagina, she knew something of these sorry attitudes; but she was content to follow the Code of the West: "Get her done!" "Do good work." "Don't ask nosy questions of cowpokes." She needed down time, so she played an album of old Western Songs to get relief.
One, however, caused her to think:
As I was out riding one morning for pleasure
I spied a young cowboy-a riding along
His hat was throw'd back and his spurs were jingling
And as he was riding he was singing this song.
Whoopee ti yi yo, get along little dogies
It's your misfortune and none of my own
Whoopee ti yi yo, get along little dogies
You know that Wyoming will be your new home.
And, oh my God! It came to her: We're the dogies, us in Generation Y. And those politicians, with their spending on stimulus money to bail out banks and GM and making health insurance mandatory, and God else those sapsuckers might come up with! Or if they're not doing that, they're going into wars for dubious reasons and screwing up the environment and passing a lot of rules to confuse things and whatever else.
She reflected: This is what we get with the frontier being closed. It used to be, a body could just go off and not be constrained. Now I'm okay with some. Living with the state government in Cheyenne is small scale, kind of like wearing a bra.* But why must we have to also wear this goddamned corset?*
*I hope that pro-government readers are not offended by comparing the objects of their enthusiasm to uncomfortable female undergarments.
As a member of Generation Y, Melinda has become increasingly aware of the creeping influence of government into people's lives, and she didn't see this as good. What about a little old-fashioned individualism? She didn't want to be fenced in by some suits within the Beltway! Now Melinda was not some hidebound reactionary, with unfounded prejudices. As a person in the bunkhouse rumored to have a vagina, she knew something of these sorry attitudes; but she was content to follow the Code of the West: "Get her done!" "Do good work." "Don't ask nosy questions of cowpokes." She needed down time, so she played an album of old Western Songs to get relief.
One, however, caused her to think:
As I was out riding one morning for pleasure
I spied a young cowboy-a riding along
His hat was throw'd back and his spurs were jingling
And as he was riding he was singing this song.
Whoopee ti yi yo, get along little dogies
It's your misfortune and none of my own
Whoopee ti yi yo, get along little dogies
You know that Wyoming will be your new home.
And, oh my God! It came to her: We're the dogies, us in Generation Y. And those politicians, with their spending on stimulus money to bail out banks and GM and making health insurance mandatory, and God else those sapsuckers might come up with! Or if they're not doing that, they're going into wars for dubious reasons and screwing up the environment and passing a lot of rules to confuse things and whatever else.
She reflected: This is what we get with the frontier being closed. It used to be, a body could just go off and not be constrained. Now I'm okay with some. Living with the state government in Cheyenne is small scale, kind of like wearing a bra.* But why must we have to also wear this goddamned corset?*
*I hope that pro-government readers are not offended by comparing the objects of their enthusiasm to uncomfortable female undergarments.
Yup, she's right. And you know where those dogies wind up!
ReplyDeleteYour cowgirl pretty wel captures the attitude that a lot of westerners have that they are overcontrolled by absentee people from the east coast. And I like that song.
ReplyDeleteI've never tried on a corset.
You Yanks are never content with what your government does for you, are you?
ReplyDeleteFull Cup, it's what our government does TO us! There is no free lunch.
ReplyDeleteThe cow girl in the picture looks comfortable.
ReplyDeleteShe looks damned fine.
ReplyDeleteI will never think about bras and corsets in the same way again.
ReplyDeleteThat's a new way of looking at unmentionables. Where in the scheme of things do guepieres and teddies fall?
ReplyDeleteThanks for your thoughts, mes amis! In Cowgirl Melinda I was trying to depict how people in some areas view the government as meddling and thus a problem.
ReplyDeleteSo sad. I wish we could agree more.
ReplyDeleteMelinda seems to have gotten out of react of the state government, at least.
ReplyDelete