My baby brother died tonight.

He was only 16.

At around 11:45pm tonight it happened, and I found out about an hour later, having been home about an hour. So it happened about the time I got home.

Michael Andrew Galyen

My baby brother that I held when he was brought home from the hospital (at three months old due to complications) and promised that I'd protect him.

My baby brother that would hug me anyway, despite being "too old for hugs" and would roll his eyes at me.

My baby brother that would introduce me to his friends as his "big sister Edeyn" and grin at me.

He was walking to school Monday morning (10 September 2007). Where he lived had a front door only 100 yards from the school's front door. The road to the high school does NOT have sidewalks or even a designated area for students to walk, so he was in the ditch. He paused to wave hello at his pastor's wife (who was bringing her son to school) at 7:27am. He was run down by a speeding car driven by an 80-year old man. The driver never even touched his brakes according to witnesses, and left the scene. Michael was hit by the front of the car, thrown into the air where he flipped twice, bounced off the rear bumper and face-planted into the ditch. The medics on the scene had to radio the helicopter to land in the school's soccer field, because Michael wouldn't have survived the half-mile trip to the helipad. The police arrived on the scene and were taking statements 20 minutes after the accident, when the driver came back. Blood was still on his hood and windshield. The medics in the helicopter spent nearly an hour just stabilizing him enough to be flown to intensive care an hour away by car. The police took the driver's statement and allowed him to drive home. The driver still has not been charged with ANYTHING. Hit and Run. No. Leaving the scene of an accident. No. Vehicular Manslaughter. No. Speeding. No. Speeding in a School Zone. No. Stupidity. No. I arrived in Springfield, Missouri, where the hospital he was being treated at is located, at around 11pm Monday night. There was no real positive change through Wednesday morning, but there was also no negative change. The doctors had shifted from speaking about, "... if he survives..." to "... quality of life..." Apparently, about the time I left the hospital for the bus station (2pm, Wednesday, September 12, 2007) things suddenly changed for the worst, and he went downhill fast.

No designated walking area, city council turning down a grant proposal to have sidewalks put in, 80 year old driver going 70 in a School Zone during the time most kids will be there, police trying to cover for a reckless driver with no business on the road in the first place...

Intellectually, I know I've slipped into shock. I don't believe I could care less.

The topic of this entry has nothing to do with my personal life. Instead, it's about my country, my President, my National Anthem, and the last four years. George W Bush has made it an embarrassing thing to be patriotic. One of the things I've always been kinda proud of was that I'd made the A Capella choir in high school, one of the duties of such was to be the ones performing the National Anthem at events. Because of the direction our country has taken since Mr. Bush assumed office, I no longer feel pride in the Star-Spangled Banner written so lovingly by Francis Scott Key, but instead a tearful shame. I don't like feeling this way about my country. I've always been thankful I lived in a land where I had the privileges afforded me to the point of being frightened by dreams where I hadn't been

I find myself apologizing for being an American to friends from other countries! I should never have to do that. This country was founded on ideals that should make it the best in the world for reasons other than monetary or technology. This country should be the best simply by virtue of the fact . . . that it is the country where an individual's rights are respected and protected -- by each and every member of the country. However, in the past 1299 days, it has increasingly become less that ideal and more a playground for those who would choose to force their ideas and beliefs upon others

The greatest tragedy in my country's history brought not only the country, but the entire world, together in a way such that anything could have been accomplished. Our leaders could have called for anything approaching a move toward making life better for us all -- I'm not claiming to have the answers, but then, it's not my job to have them -- but instead, they penned and enacted a virtual killing blow to the purposes and premises of this great land, veritable plague upon our liberties, and called it . . . perhaps in some sort of vile attempt at humor . . . the Patriot Act

I'm tired of friends going abroad and telling me about situations in other countries where they had to say they were from Canada to avoid being beaten to hell. I'm tired of not being allowed to be proud of my country. I want to be able to feel an upwelling of pride when my leaders' accomplishments are mentioned. I want to be able to spontaneously break into a rendition of my National Anthem and be looked at funny for spontaneously breaking into song -- not for my choice of song. I want to hear about people wanting my countrywomen and countrymen around because we're good people from a great place

Whatever happened to:"Give me your tired your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
anyway? Are we not still "the Great Melting Pot?" This is the United States of America, aren't we supposed to be the ones that offer freedom and a new chance at life to those that are persecuted for being different?

Dammit why does it SUCK to be from the United States now? We have no one to blame but ourselves. We have to fix this problem, but being a country of freedoms, we seem to think that makes us free to ignore the problem and that someone else will take care of it. Freedom does have a price. If it's broken, you have to fix it

Well, here's the thing: it's broken, we have to fix it. If you're from the U.S., wouldn't you like to be proud of where you're from again? Get your scrawny (or not so scrawny, I don't care if you make Shamu look shrimpy) ass off the couch, out of the computer chair, what-the-hell-ever . . . get people motivated. We have to fix this. If you're not from the U.S. well, wouldn't you like to not be disgusted when any of us come around anymore?

Well, most of you are thinking by now that this is way too preachy, way too starry-eyed, or whatever you're thinking . . . it's "way too"

I could give two shits

I don't like feeling this way and if more people here (here being the general location that is the U.S. as a whole) had the decency to be embarrassed about our country as a whole, well, I'm guessing I wouldn't need to anymore

"We will not forget that liberty here made her home; nor shall her chosen altar be neglected"
-- President Grover Cleveland
at the acceptance of the Statue of Liberty ceremony, October 28, 1886