Only in America

America, the greatest country in the world.

Where else can we have such freedoms, and yet such turmoil as we've seen in the last eight years. Where else but in America can we have such right wing fascism and such bold lies and distortions of the truth? Where else but in America can we have a media that is so controlled by special interest groups and moguls that they can manipulate everything we see, hear, and read, even down to the home town newspaper.

Where else but in America can we have a political process that pits so many people against each other and issues fabricated so that the candidates have talking points for their campaign.

Only in America can we have such "supposed" attacks as 9/11 to scare it's citizens into not complaining against something as insidious as the Patriot Act I & II. And if you believe in the conspiracy theories, only in America can you have a president and his backers who will think nothing of killing thousands of it's own innocent citizens to achieve a goal such as the patriot act and as a precept for going to war where thousands more die. Only in America can you have a president who thinks nothing of flipping someone the bird. I find this practice totally disrespectful of his office and that is provides a glimpse into his mental state, but then again, that's just my opinion.

You will all notice of course, that when this year's campaign first started up, immigration was the huge topic, along with the war in Iraq. Now it's all about the economy. It's just like in 1974 when there was a contrived gas shortage, later found to be false, and everyone was up in arms about the price of gas and the lack of gas. We had gas rationing, killings in gas lines, people not able to work due to not being able to buy gas, and just an over all feeling that the government was screwing us by not doing something. We have such an invasive and manipulative media that things wrong with the economy or social ills can be contrived to make one party or the other look good or bad.

Now we have experienced the worst president in the history of mankind, be it from this country or any other. We've seen a decline in all sorts of morals, from business ethics and moral to social morals. We've seen the acceptance of drug usage rise to staggering rates. Now even the general populous is calling for the legalization of pot so we can all self medicate out of the reality of every day problems. Our jobs and productivity as a nation has decreased due to jobs being shipped overseas. We have become a nation where it's the haves against the have nots, and increasingly it's becoming more people in the have nots class. The middle class has been squeezed more and more into the latter category. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer has never been a more true statement than it is today.

American business needs to remember two things.
1. HEY, you can't take it with you when you die.
2. The more you press the "have nots" into the streets, the less customers you'll have to buy your product.

In the last eight years, it has become more noticeable that our education system is broken. We have teachers who can't even recognize pictures of world leaders. We trust these same teachers to educate our kids when they aren't educated themselves. The old saying of "the blind leading the blind" comes to mind. The "dumbing down of America" is another phrase that comes to mind.
Don't believe me? Watch Jay Leno's "Jay Walking" segments. I don't mean for this to be a blanket indictment of teachers in America, but there sure are enough of them who I wouldn't trust with my kids even on a bet.

We have a two party system, often called "the left" and "the right". Us "lefties", are supposed to be so radical in our thinking (according to "the right") that we're even considered immoral because we believe in personal freedoms. The "rights" also seem to think of it as they're called "the right" because they ARE RIGHT and we're LEFT (as in, left out of God's fold because we're such bad people) rather than terming us as "the wrong."

The "rights" think they're on a mission from God to control our morals, yet it's very interesting that lately many of those on "the right" have had tremendous scandals come to light.
Governor Jim "I'm gay" McGreevy, Senator Larry "toe tappin" Craig just to mention 2 who are actually elected officials. And then we have the real "far right" "Christians" who feel it's their authority from God to control the morals of all of us, coming out in sex scandals of their own. Ted Haggard and Jimmy Swaggart come to mind. We then have blowhard right wingers like Jerry Falwell who once said, "AIDS is God's way of spanking us for our immorality."

In America we have a duality in morality. We have those who truly are good Christians and then we have those who are Christians till they get caught messing up. And lo and behold, it often seems like THEY mess up worse than the rest. Or is it just that we see them acting all holier than thou and so it seems like a much bigger deal when they are caught?

The American History books teach that the original purpose of the two parties was that the Republicans were there to control finance and the morals of the society. The Democrats were there to take into consideration the human frailties and differences in socio, cultural and economic statuses amongst groups and races in the country and make sure everyone had an equal chance to succeed in America. Many on the "right" feel that 'human frailties' means the failure of people to pick themselves by the bootstraps and make something of themselves. The problem comes when they don't have the boots to have the straps FOR. The Democrats are supposed to make sure everyone at least has a pair of boots and the ability to get the straps to pull on. The "right" often feels as though people should make their own boots AND straps. Well what if they can't? That's where the war between the classes comes in.

Now that's not to say that Republicans and their "big profits due to smaller government" can't go ahead and make all the money they want, but hey, lets do it fairly shall we?

In America we now have a legal system that is broken as well, and a penal system which is nothing more than the "time out" you give your five year old. It doesn't work! More and more, you hear teens and young adults saying things like, "I can bust a cap in your ass and do a nickel standing on my head." First off, since when does killing someone rate not much more than a five year sentence, and how much of a glorified "day care" has our prison system become when a person can make that statement and just plain not care about the consequences of killing or robbing someone?

We have Celebrities like Britany Spears and Paris Hilton, and least we forget Britany's sister, going out and partying like there's no tomorrow, and having babies with no thoughts of the real consequences. Well at least Paris is not a mother yet, but give her time. She's done all the rest of the stuff, and in America we tend to glorify rather than condemn them for their behavior.

In America we have athletes who care more about multi-million dollar contracts than they do about their love for the game they play, and we glorify that too, with ticket prices to cover their salaries, that are too high for the average person to afford.

We have medical doctors and other professionals who are so inept that they often mis-diagnose someone and charge them an arm and a leg for treatment because after all, it's all about big business and profits.

We have gang violence and crime that is way beyond what any other country will even tolerate, yet we do. We not only tolerate it but we grow more lil criminals every day and release them into society.

So why is it that we're still the best country in the world?

Because we can still enjoy the freedom (good or bad) to have all of the above listed things.

NowPublic

Tags: Culture