Sunday, September 24, 2017

Make America Gooder Again



Greatness is over-rated.


Remember the clip from HBO above? This was the opening scene of HBO's "The Newsroom".


America is not the greatest country in the world…….. anymore.


Please give me the timelines (the exact date range) of when the USA was THE GREATEST country in the world.


We all remember Muhammad Ali, the silver-tongued boxer and civil rights champion who famously proclaimed himself "The Greatest of all time" and then spent a lifetime living up to the billing, is now dead. How do you (today) feel about this man?  Was he a hero? Was he a criminal? I was born in 1960 and I grew up HATING this man, because my father hated him. Draft dodger. So, hate him we must!


Today I have very different feelings about Muhammad Ali.


We were the first country to land a man on the moon, and return him safely to earth. Was THAT when we were the greatest country in the world?


If I remember my history, we were beating people with clubs and blasting them with fire hoses at the exact same time we were shuttling men back and forth to the moon.


That does not feel too great.


A More Perfect Union may refer to the Preamble to the United States Constitution. You can read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preamble_to_the_United_States_Constitution


Is it not amusing that many historians feel that “more perfect” is bad grammar?


The United States of America was never the greatest country in the world, just as it was (and never will be) perfect. The USA has had its share of villains and heroes in the Oval Office, sometimes in the same person.


Was Lincoln our greatest President? Many say yes. Others say that he was a very troubled man, suffering from depression and anxiety most of his life. Was the Civil War about slavery, or about economics? I am not smart enough to comment, and I was not there. And even if I were alive at the time, we all know that eyewitness testimony is bunk.


I love my country. I never fought in a war. I fully recognize that every good thing that I have in my life, I owe to others, especially our veterans. I grew up never wanting anything. I had two loving parents who both died way too young. From the day I was born, I enjoyed every benefit that living in the USA can possibly deliver.


The USA was never “The Greatest” country in the world. But from our birth as a nation, we have tried to form a more perfect union. It was this pursuit of perfection that made us amazing. Look at all we have accomplished in less than 300 years. As a nation, we are just a baby.


And it is the ONGOING, never-ending pursuit of greatness, the constant attempts to be better, to do better, to learn from our past - that is our destiny.


Make America Great….Today.


Learn from our past to make tomorrow better.

But let’s not go backwards.



"Made in the USA"

Please Watch This



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