I am proud to be an American. There are many things to be proud of. The Declaration of Independence and our Constitution are two fantastic works of art when it comes to democracy. They were written 230 years ago. Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR were men of action. They are dead. Baseball was a fine sport that for years represented clearly the American desire to never see a person of color in their midst. Thankfully, it is now a sport that has lately embodied the American spirit of bottom lines and cheating to get ahead. The automobile was a symbol of American prosperity in the early 20th century. Now, reckless business practice, a reluctance to change, pollution, white flight and subsequent urban decay, and the country's desire to tap every last drop of the world's oil has made the automobile the anchor around our necks. We were the greatest country in the world.
We live in a country where a man can buy a gun whenever he wants to. We also live in a country where that same man can walk into a Safeway, gun people down, and smile about it. We live in a country where we can choose to live wherever we please, but government money and infrastructure is only provided to a select few communities. We can work any job we want, but none of these jobs exist. We have upward mobility, if we have talents that 99% of other Americans don't like running a 4.3 forty or playing the guitar behind our backs. We were built on the backs of immigrants, now we hate people for fleeing a country where death by beheading is more likely than economic success. We are democratic in name alone, run by corporations and fear. Most of all we are afraid.
Our grandfathers ran through jungles, forests, open fields, rain, and snow, not to mention gunfire, to liberate people we didn't even know from tyranny. Our grandmothers kept the country running while they fought. Our parents stood up to the inequities of the United States. Some of us continue to fight literally and figuratively for what it stood for. But in each situation, that only accounts for a few of us. Most of us wouldn't help a homeless man we pass on the street. Most of us judge people not by their character, but by the color of their skin. Most men think women are inferior, and most women think all men are that big of a douchebag. We are scum and for some reason damn proud of it. So we pursue a course of action that shows complete indifference to the turmoil, destruction, and chaos we are sewing.
We neglect essential areas of our society to pursue economic and military dominance, mainly education. Now, our children don't know mathematics or science. They can't write correctly, because the teachers aren't good enough. Most couldn't identify China on a map, much less the world's problem areas like Darfur, Afghanistan, or Iraq. But there is no money for education, so teachers get cut. Then, we cut the arts. Who needs to sing, paint, or play an instrument, when they have a college degree that is worthless in a dying society. So we have no spirit, no creativity, we have become a mind-numbing drone society, serving the queen of capitalism until we meet our doom. Some of us get lucky and get to mate with the system, only to find that in bad times, the economy turns and kills whoever drove it to the abyss. It is a rough world out there, but we are making it worse by handicapping those who need the help the most.
I am not a man who believes anyone deserves a handout. You are an adult and therefore should be capable of getting a job even if it isn't the one you want. However, you are not capable of beating a corporation. The corporation enjoys now not only the benefits of being incredibly wealthy, emotionless, and cruel. Now, it is also deserving of the full rights of citizenship. I understand fully that precedents exist that give this decision reason, but the action itself is spitting on the grave of Theodore Roosevelt. His actions at the beginning of the 20th Century helped curb the growing power of corporations, who used the 14th amendment as means of applying citizenship to their companies. So when you go to buy health care insurance that does not even give you the basic options of visiting a doctor or buying cheaper prescription drugs, where is your next step? Do you not buy insurance, or do you take the hit at no benefit to yourself, save the misfortune of you actually needing the insurance at which time your service will be dropped as a means of cost prevention? No, because now that cannot happen to you. And you said I did nothing for you last year.
Yes, we passed a bill that was watered down and most likely will not stand the test of time, but it began the process of us realizing that we are not a third-world country and should be willing to sacrifice some of our opulence for the benefit of the entirety of America. If you care so little about your fellow Americans, what standard does that set for your children? Why should they give a fuck about anything? We sacrifice the health of the less fortunate to save money, we sacrifice the education of everyone to save money, but we spend money on many things that will ultimately lead to the destruction of not only America, but humanity and the planet Earth itself. Our country refuses to acknowledge global warming, despite the ever deepening disastrous results of global climate change. We refuse to acknowledge pollution, despite the growing incidences of childhood disease, carcinogens in our water, and just the filthiness of our country. We refuse to change our lifestyles, to the point that America is facing a epidemic of gluttony or obesity. We refuse to even have reasoned discussions on topics, because we are all so fucking right.
I am not always right, in fact my humanity implies that I most often wrong, and therefore fallible. No one that has ever come and will ever come again is not subject to fallibility. We all make mistakes, and in doing so learn how not to make them again. When we repeat our mistakes, it is not an ignorance in which we do so but purposefully and, in our case, an act of malfeasance. To continue to cut programs which are vital to not only the economic growth but cultural growth of the American people, is not only idiotic but also a betrayal of the American people. Even those Americans who understand the justification for bailing out companies which essentially were poorly managed at best and criminally irresponsible at worst, cannot justify expenditures without return on investment. Even the richest men in the world do not cut blank checks to shady figures likely to dispense it as a child dispenses candy from a pinata. So our Congress and myself who both take money from corporations, get a big fucking pat on the back from those CEOs who got their year-end bonuses, but can't explain to a 20 year old from a low income family why he won't have enough money to cover the public education which somehow became more expensive despite no growth in the actual economy itself.
Deficit spending is not something new, and I assume that anyone in my position would have done what I did to try to save the economy. I assume a weaker and less stubborn man may have left Afghanistan to the dogs, and just given up trying to bring civilization and order to a place where neither have ever belonged. Maybe another man would have spend more money on immigration and less money on our old, sick, and poor. Maybe the country made a mistake in electing an idealist rather than a dinosaur. Maybe hope was not what the country wanted, but rather a scapegoat for their own incompetence. There are a whole lot of maybes always coming from us, and not a whole lot of action. While we wallow in pity that we are quickly becoming a modern version of the vast British empire, the rest of the world grows up without direction. China will continue to grow, and without us leading the way, will most certainly stray to the Earth's ruin. They will industrialize, pollute, and mismanage and someday will find themselves like us, but without a chance to redeem themselves.
But there are tough roads ahead, and I fear none of us are man or woman enough to take them. Taxes must at the least remain the same, if not increase. Americans will have to spend more to make more, giving up what makes them comfortable to save ourselves. Our industries must go forward, our innovations must come faster, and our corporations must stop leeching the heart and soul out of America. America was built on sweat, an axe or a shovel and our Manifest Destiny. We were the nation of immigrants, a heterogeneous society, a nation of firsts and lasts. As the 21st Century dawned, our destiny was still clear; we were the beacon for all of mankind to follow. In hindsight, it made us a target, but we made ourselves a victim. We have spent the last decade a shell of ourselves, living in fear of the outside world as the outside world passes us by. We have been wasteful, we have been ignorant, and we have been weak. The path of the nation is unclear, perhaps even worse through your jaded eyes, and we must do everything in our power to make sure that tomorrow is brighter than today. For at the current pace, fear may not be enough to save us from our ultimate demise.
I am proud to be an American. Proud of the standards set forth by our forefathers. Proud of the men and women who held off the British when they denied our freedom. Proud of the men and women who fought to remove the scourge of slavery from this land. Proud of the "fascists/commies" who championed the uplifting of the common man in the Progressive movement. Proud of the women who fought tooth and claw for the right to vote. Proud of the men and women who fought in both World Wars. Proud of those who had to live through the Great Depression, and found themselves in the greatest country in the world after. Proud of those who refused to give up their seats, and those who marched for civil rights. Proud of the men and women who gave their lives for their beliefs, or for their country despite their beliefs. Proud of every man and woman who has ever served our nation in any capacity, whether it be taking up arms, serving in office, or just a government job. Hopefully, the future will bear more worth being proud of, but we as a nation must do the heavy lifting lest it be too late for pride.
Note: I apologize if this comes off too angry, but this actually is slightly toned down version of something else I wrote which pointed out the flaws of the American psyche. This hopefully was more directed at governmental flaws, but I feel the individual gets it pretty well after reading it through a couple of times. It's important to realize that government flaws are a product of a complacent citizenship in a democracy. We acknowledge the flaws but constantly retain men and women who have proven no ability to govern successfully while removing those of reason who vote with a backbone as opposed to a wallet. Now that I've thrown my soapbox through your car window, I suppose I cannot take that back.
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