Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick

That's all it is like around here, a ticking time-bomb. We sit, we wait, and nothing. When is this little rugrat going to get tired of the warm sanctuary of my wife's abdomen and show herself?!

Seriously though, no rush. Incubate as long as you need little one. Soon enough you'll be barraged by advertising as accurate and deadly as a cruise missile. Soon you'll be surrounded by fast food chains, the media frenzy of Paris Hilton, Lilo and other stupid media nicknamed people who have no discernible impact on this world other than making people more apathetic by reveling in their lives. Seriously folks, entertainers have become the government's weaponized propaganda machine. SLEEP civilian....SLEEP. Believe me, you don't even want to get me started on my sheer hatred for MTV, the bile perks up at the mere thought of it. Maybe this is an old man speaking, but I remember when they actually had music on Music TeleVision.

Anyway, I guess my point with all of this is, I'm scared for what my child's future in America. Raising a child right, well, that is tough enough. But trying to keep them away from the influence of media, friends engulfed in the media/consumerism, is going to be tough.

Now I'm not saying you can't raise a child in the U.S.A without them falling prey. I in fact work with a gentleman who has two young children of around the ages 9 and 6. He has a Nintendo Wii at home, and upon asking him a few months ago how often that Wii is used, he said it and the TV it is attached to are under a plastic painting tarp in the basement he has been finishing for the last few months. "Have the kids been begging to get that baby up and running?" I asked. "Nope," he replied. Astonishing!!! So I do believe you can direct your child in different alternative directions. But wait until his daughter his 13, 12 or maybe even 11 when those "friends" of hers bring about their leaning peer pressures.

This is what I fear for Samran and I. Mostly for Samran. Her Thai culture is quiet and polite. You get on the elevated train (BTS) in Bangkok, Thailand and it is almost silent. This is with a fully packed train. And I say almost silent, because their are doubtlessly a handful of tourons (tourists) barking away at one another, which all the Thais are trying their hardest to look away from/get away from. Now, get on a train in Chicago, and it's people playing music on their phones without the courtesy of using headphones, kids yaaking like Tom Cruise just buzzed the tower, garbage all over the floors, on and on and on.

Now, I'm not the most patient man, so I know, some if not most of this is me. But what I will not relent is that many of Americans, mostly in the cities, have become loud, obnoxious and uncaring of their fellow citizen from a standpoint of consideration. Considerate is a word that should be wiped from the face of the American city, because considerate, just doesn't happen.

No doubt my child will have it as both her parents do. But that's just one piece of my many fears. Someday, I fear, I'll have to leave this country with our family to ensure that those other influences are far and away.