Posted by
Tinsldr2 on Sunday, October 28, 2007 7:11:03 AM
What Makes America Great
We do. I read an article that got me thinking about the future of America. The writer was talking of America on the decline. He listed off a bunch of potential problems with America but I remain unconvinced. In fact in most regards I think we are better off then in the past. One commenter who was in his mid-twenties asked when this great age of America was supposed to be.
America has made immeasurable contributions to the world. The amount we have done right is more then I could catalogue but let’s start with history of what we did wrong. Early America saw slavery, the whiskey rebellion, suffering among the poor, terrible education and serious disagreement among the various states and political parties. Throw in the fact of what we were doing to the Native Americans and you can see it was not an idyllic society. Of course that makes the accomplishments of those great forefathers all the more incredible and noteworthy.
As we progress in history we had the states rights war fought largely over the economics and slavery. We had a president that threw drunken brawls in the white house and political leaders shot in duels. We had massive corruption in government, drafts you could literally buy your way out of and suspension of constitutional rights such as habeas corpus. America had huge amounts of unregistered immigration from Europe and the Orient. We built the first transcontinental railroad using this cheap undocumented labor and slew a lot of Indians in the process not to mention what we did to the environment, think buffalo and dust bowl.
As we progressed as a country we had War with Spain over Cuba and sinking of the U.S.S. Maine which may have been bogus. America fought Wars with countries that supported Pirates (almost like terrorists) simply over economic interests. Isolationist policies were in favor for awhile and then we had War in Europe that didn’t end in unconditional surrender and set the stage for future war. America had Trade embargo policies that caused a country to attack us on our soil and we were the only country to use nukes against another country. During this time we had depressions, rationing of goods, our country was broke and couldn’t afford the Second World War, women were forced into the workplace, and a then forced out of it. We made deals with evil countries we were opposed to like the U.S.S.R and carved up the world as we saw fit at the end of the war giving approval for the USSR to rule by fiat and proxy over countries like Poland and Hungary. Don’t even get me started on what we did to the Americans of Japanese descent in WWII.
We had terrible civil rights injustices, civil and not so civil disagreement on another War in Viet Nam, war in Korea, which ended in a draw, invasion of Grenada and now our current woes. We had McCarthyism and blacklisting for people that may have supported Communism. Inflation and gas prices out of control, censor ship of the airwaves, decline of manufacturing jobs, inner city riots are All problems of the 50’s,60’s and 70’s. So when was this great America?
Our country is great. I have travelled the world and never been to a better place. What makes us great is the multiethnic melting pot of ideas and people. We, all of us, from the liberal big government homosexuals to the conservative Christians. From the people who follow politics to those that follow Brittany Spears. We the people in order to form a MORE perfect union, not a PERFECT union but a more perfect union then what is elsewhere, WE are what make it great.
And the young generation of America will keep this country great. The kids today will live in a better America then we do now.