In spite of faults, America really is great.

It amazes me that there are so many people taking cracks at America and Americans, including some of our own citizens.

Consider the following from a Chinese Exchange student.

Think about the above. The communists have been running China for over 50 years, supposedly preaching about a classless society. Where does a young Chinese student find such a society? At an American college which happens to have a lot of students from very affluent families.

Yes, we still have racism here, and I expect it to survive for at least another generation or two. However, we have come a long way since the 1940's. I remember driving to Florida with classmates and being the one to register at motels while the others stayed in the car. Some of my friends were Jewish and I was the only one in the car with an Anglo Saxon name. South of Washington DC, there were quite a few motels with prominent signs saying: “No niggers, jews, or dogs allowed ” (apparently, they had a kindly opinion of cats). Most of the motels without such signs had the attitude. Today, there may be many with the attitude, but at least the signs are gone, and the bigots cannot openly make racist remarks without considering the context. I can remember losing a friend or two when I objected to racist and/or anti-Semitic remarks may years ago. That no longer happens. Most of the time, I do not even hear such remarks. While we still have racism, compared to that era, anti-Semitism has been cut down drastically.

America seems to be able to cure its ills without a revolution. We are still the destination of choice for the rest of the world. The best and the brightest come here if they can. One of my best friends is a Russian immigrant who came here 20 years ago. She now runs a successful business. A recently deceased friend was an Englishman who worked with me in the 1960's and went back to England thirty years ago. He got in touch with me about ten years ago because he was impressed that I socialized with him and his wife outside of office hours. His parents were factory workers, while he knew that my father was an engineer and a businessman. He said that in England, my kind never became close friends with his kind. I wonder if it is still that way in the UK. I never thought of my kind as opposed to his kind. He said he would have stayed in America but for his parents who would not move to a new country.

Most of the people in the US classed as impoverished are way better off than those in third world countries. A person with intelligence and ambition can still make it here. My Russian friend still does not speak English well and came here with nothing but some clothes and enough money to live for a few weeks.

Where do the affluent Arabs send their children to college? How many decent colleges are there in Arab countries? For that matter, how many are there outside of the Western type technological cultures? How well would my Russian Friend do in an Arab country? How well would a female like her do in most countries?

Considering our financial and military power, I think we behave well. A few countries like England, Belgium, Switzerland, and Australia, are the only ones I would expect to behave as well, and I shudder to think of what many would do with our financial and military power. Look at the difference in attitude toward defeated enemies in WW1 & WW2. America had a lot of influence after WW2, and gave Germany/Japan a better break than any foe of any country who surrendered unconditionally.

If we could get rid of at least half the lawyers and reform most of our politicians, this country would really be great instead of merely damn good.

The worst crime I blame America for is stupidity in supporting dictators, something we started during WW2 with the USSR. We never seem to realize that having a common enemy does make a person or country your friend. We also seem to forget that making deals with evil is neither ethical nor practical.

As for going to war with Iraq, it seems like we decided to get tuff with the Middle East too late. If Carter had done something drastic instead of diddling for months and then trying a stupid commando raid, the Arab countries might not have been so brave about causing trouble for us. We have looked like a pussy cat to them for decades.

I have no doubt that they were surprised at our reaction to 7/11.

 

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We got rid of a dictator and now we are the world's dictator. If George Bush doesn't like some other country's leader, he will just make up a bunch of lies and go to war to oust the leader. I can see how others in the world hate us.

 

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I was thinking this very thing today on my way home from school. I was and am seriously considering doing some volunteer work in Turkey for a few weeks, and I got to thinking how different that world must be from mine. How so many people around the world desire to live where I do with the people that I do with the things that I do, how so few actually can...it's mindboggling. In spite of America's faults I love living here and being part of a nation people will be talking about thousands and thousands of years from now. It's a great feeling--I don't doubt that during Rome's height there was a similar sense of patriotism abound with the people "educated" enough to apreciate it.

 

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Greatness can also be a liability

I would agree with you that the United States in many ways is the greatest nation on earth. BUT... with that greatness comes the potential for the greatest evil on earth.

We can steer away from doing evil, but it will be a long and painful lesson. Peoples suffering under American policies are learning that the superpower does have vulnerabilities, and that if properly exploited we are no more powerful than Belgium or Australia. Once we learn that lesson, we can then aspire to real greatness.

 

nice. relatively speaking, we are cool. neato. be thankful for what you got
"eat up all your greens tommy! there are ethiopians starving"

i need to think. what are the hidden costs of being american. are there any?

 

I live in the USA because I am fortunate enough to be an American, because I am patriotic, and because I have opportunities here I have not found elsewhere.

As someone already said, with greatness (national, not personal) comes responsibility. National greatness is not a permanent inheritance: It must be earned by each generation. With the evolution of all nations ongoing, we must surpass the greatness of our forebears just to keep up: Yesterday's "Grand Nation" is tomorrow's Absurdistan.

American assumptions of entitlement, and a collective attitude of arrogant self-righteousness are real and present threats to our greatness. It is patriotic, and in my own self interest to oppose these tendencies.

 

You guys who think America is so great please read "The New Rulers of the World" by John Pilger and then report back here that your opinion hasn't changed.

 

Okay, but you have to read "Slander" by Ann Coulter. And then "Treason", also by Coulter. Deal?

 

Deal.

 

I also accept the challenge, having read not one of the 3 books mentioned. Let's all have our book reports in a week, class

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Spookz sez

Being miserably uneducated about the rest of the world, in a lot of cases... living with endemic mild racism, like the kind you get on ER and Law and Order... being stupid enough to think that, if push came to shove, the US could control China or defeat them in a land war... living in a land of Tuff Guys who yet run whining to the government when someone undercuts their prices on prescription drugs, softwood lumber, produce... not thinking that there is any other way to do things than the way they are done.

Individual Americans are often very educated and interesting people, but as a whole the US can really look like a country of rednecks and idiots... so apologies to the individuals who don't have these problems.

 

Limey bastard.

I've got a line on a dentist for you, redcoat.

HA!

LOL. Pardon.

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Oh, and Dino I often have a somewhat surprised reaction to 7/11. Usually like "what did that dude say?". LOL. Okay so I suck.

I do agree though, that America really is great. I feel very privelaged to live here.

 

Huzzah!

 

Red Neck...

Yall liss'n here. Livin in this country is great!! That America is great, yea it is, We've gots Canada, Greenland, Central America an' South America, livin in the US, is great though I'aint recon Venezuelans year consider it real great over there, now that the US is on a rampage fer all.

The big daddy as it wuz is what the US is in the Amurkin continent, Though I'aint understan' why US leaves Cuban dictator alone Fidel Castro, alone while he is also responsible fer killin thounsands of his own folks, an' bla,bla, dictator evil shiet. But Afner the US commensed ta puttin prisoners of war over there in Guantanomo, as ta keepem from US laws, so they can tourture an' do what ever the hell they want, this explains what purpose Cuba serves fer The US. Arrogant bastards..


No I ain't got cumplaints livin in this country of the (mediocarly free) wuz guvernment is the daddy of the land, as if I wuz stupid ta not know what kin' of medicine I miat need, so by force I havta go ta the doc. pay $75@visit just ta git alergie pills. A guvernment that is easily manipulated by money, an' interest groups wif deep pockets, so now 18 yyear olds year old enough ta git killed in war, but not old enough ta drink, That I'm not responcible enough ta stay in a bar afner 2:00 Am except in Vegas, the lan' wif mow lawyers than there year cows in Wyomin, wuz kids git expelled fer havin aspirin in school, wuz my pickup truck is confiscated cause some dog smelled a seed of marijuana. Yea fer yall dumb assess if yall still recon yall year livin in a free country, just be glad urine name ain't not Hussein, Asaiid, or any kin' of Arab name, it is just the same when they put evary Japanese in detention hold, hell this country has not changed, it is still full of fuckin biggotss, assholes an' idiots. Ya reckon?

Butts I lovess livig here anyway!!.

Godless.

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I believe the proper redneck pronunciation of Arab is "Ay-rab". Just so you get it right.

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godless
you rock
i cracked up!

*hidden costs as... in what does it take to maintain our lifestyle? do we do so at the expense of ours? isnt terrorism a hidden cost of doing business with israel? deforestation due to our wasteful ways? something in the lines of that. does our consumption of most of the natural resources mean others will have less and thus live in poverty?

 

BTW Dinosaur:

Evil? Who, the USSR? Unless we're defining evil as highly subjective, they weren't really evil. Besides, technically they were still "Russia" in WWII, not the USSR.

 

gregoftheweb

Quote: I believe the proper redneck pronunciation of Arab is "Ay-rab". Just so you get it right.

Oh!! really? well then tell this people:

http://www.atlantaga.com/redneck.htm

Yo buss dis. Gregoftheweb..Do you noed redneck? well den maybe you might also noed some ebonics, I truly love dis country though I ain't agree wit de guvernment, an' what be doin ovuh dere killin crum snachas an' havin our boys killed too. We be only dere makin Bush an' company richuh fuh his friends Haliburton be a very happy company wit its no bid contracts to rebuild Irag, well we surely showed de world, dat if you ain't stan' wit us, you kaint profit wit us, de US closes de doe on any country dat opposed de war, on bids to rebuild Irag, who profits by wipin out Irags debts? everythin overthere be done fuh profit, meanwhile dis adminiskration goes an' cuts military duty pay, veteran disability pay, an' evary cut dis boys can come up screwin our troops, support!! Please. Hell I support de troops, brindem home Bush! or sen' yo daughters dere fuh a one year service, see if you do dat. Sheeit!


Godless.

 

the US of A is at the same time the most loved, hated, admired and feared nation on earth.

there are many pluses and many minuses.
the masses of illegal refugees and immigration applicants suggest that the pluses are bigger than the minuses.

We got rid of a dictator and now we are the world's dictator. If George Bush doesn't like some other country's leader, he will just make up a bunch of lies and go to war to oust the leader. I can see how others in the world hate us.
you are a baboon.
please read the topic before you respond.

there are minuses and there are pluses. even if a certain war was unjustified, the decision on whether US is good or bad cannot be based solely on that.

if a doctor loses (does not save the life of) a patient once in a while that does not make him a bad doctor. you have to look at how many other patients he treats, and how they turn out.

on a big scale, USA is a very good country. many Americans have no idea how lucky they are living there.

 

Yes, in every way. Or rather, because the USA is at the top of the economic heap, it warps everything to suit itself. Exporting debt, pollution, importing all the raw materials etc it can find. Of course, all this is implicit in gloablisaiton anyhow, and since most of the people here are doing ok by it, you wont find many dissenters.