[jammer]

Great post. I've wondered the same thing as the author. One attribute of cowboys that I find sadly missing in many Americans is their willingness and ability to, "stomp their own snakes and saddle their own broncs." Oh, if only we still possessed as a nation the cowboy's independence of action and thought . . .

[tillacum]

There are still some around, we've just been inundated with a bunch of Citizens of the World, newcomers, in the last 50/60 years. They have not the background of being truly independent as the "Old Time Americans had to be. Prior to WWII we didn't have all the government hand outs we do today. Americans of prior WWII had to be industrious, and truthful. Most Americans lived in small towns where everyone knew each other including the skeletons, no one spoke of, in public. Even large cities had their "neighborhoods" where everyone knew everyone by name. We still have among us independent souls, ready to stand up for what they believe in, our volunteer military, for instance. Our police forces, firemen, doctors, nurses, dentists, and medical technicians who take a week or two each year to perform necessary medical and dental work on our native reservations, who travel to Africa and South America to help those less fortunate. We're still a pretty independent country, all we need to do is get rid of our socialist congress and senate.