Why “Wake Up America”?

The story starts with my dad and ends with Six Flags Darien Lake.

My dad loves to listen to local talk radio in his truck on the Lockport station 1340 WLVL. One of those programs was a left-leaning one hosted by Scott Leffler. Now Scott would get most of his listener call-ins from the same small pool of dedicated listeners. His favorite was an old codger named Al.

Every day Al called in, ranting about healthcare, war, welfare, and conspiracies. Inevitably, at some point in each tirade he would scream “Wake up America!” This always made my dad and I laugh. I agree with most of what the fossil was saying, but his absurd delivery got a rise out of everyone tuned in.

I always thought that an impassioned person who chose to deliver arguments by screaming and ranting immediately lost all credibility.

Fast forward to 2007. I was at Six Flags Darien Lake with my friends Kyle, Andy, and Graydon. We came up on the 4th of July to see a Rush concert. Before the 7 pm show we decided to go on the roller coasters, including the infamous Superman: Ride of Steel. It was raining, and we spent most of the line getting soaked. When we finally got into the ride, we put all of our rain gear off to the side of the track, so as not to get lost or dropped on the ride. We rode around the track until getting to 30 yards before the end. When the roller coaster stopped. Something on the coaster broke and we were forced to sit in the pouring rain, a few jumps distance away from the exit.

At first my friends and I passed the time by chatting and playing games. We got bored of that after a while. To lift spirits, I started yelling about conspiracies and politics, ending each claim with “WAKE UP AMERICA!” in reference to Al from the radio.

I didn’t believe half of what I said but it got my friends and some other passengers laughing, while others got upset and started hollering back for me to shut up.

Notable quotes include, “You fat cats keep drinking your Starbucks…that’s not coffee, it’s blood money!” and a summary of the terrible 9/11 YouTube video loose change.

Ever since, whenever I get into an argument with my friends about anything, one will inevitably shout “Wake up America!” to remind me to stop taking myself so seriously.

In general, people who know me would agree that I have pretty strongly-held beliefs, though these are subject to change at a minute’s notice. I will be loud and belligerent in public for laughs and attention. This makes me roughly as mature as a 5th grader.

I watch C-SPAN and read the news a lot, as well as regularly trolling political forums and blogs. I consider myself fairly well-informed, but there is always someone smarter than me around the corner, ready to smack me around in debates.

My point in writing this blog isn’t to win over people to my opinions. Indeed, I suspect many of my posts will be incoherent and/or nonsensical. Often I won’t even be writing about politics.

Stephen King called writing “mental masturbation.” I couldn’t agree with that assertion more–I feel an urge to write, be it fiction, essays, or blogging. When I don’t write I feel creatively stunted and unfulfilled.

I do this mainly for myself because I like to write and my medical studies don’t provide much outlet for commenting on society. I’m also egotistical enough to think someone might read it or care.

I only hope that at the end of the day I entertained you.

Welcome to Wake Up America!

-Jackson

Tags: Blog, blogosphere, jackson, journalism, Random, Up, Wake, Welcome