Here we are again, another birthday, 233 years since the founding of the United States. This democracy has weathered many ups and downs since 1776. Wars, both internal and external have ravaged our country and our people, immigration turned this country into a melting pot of humanity; freedom allowed individuals to rise from poverty to riches through their toil and sweat equity, we have witnessed the greatest advances in science, medicine, technology and industry in history. We have traveled into space, sent probes to the stars and traveled to the deepest depths of the oceans. We have come from a military that had to have help from the French to defeat Britain, to the de facto peacekeeper for the world.
We have been a nation of checks and balances, imperfect in execution at times, slow to correct obvious faults at times, but always improving and striving to be better. Individual initiative has been a watchword and a beacon of hope for many, who arrived here penniless, or came from poverty. We have always had the ability pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, and raise ourselves to as high a level as we wished, through work, education and time.
The “American Dream” does exist; I am living proof of that- I was the first one to go to college in my family. My dad had a 5th grade education, my mother a 3rd grade education, they had a choice to succeed or to fail, and they chose to succeed. They showed me by example how to succeed, but I still had to do it. It was not going to be handed to me on a silver platter, hell we didn’t have one!
Today, I believe we are facing a crisis in the United States, both at a personal level, and a national level.
At the personal level, I believe we have lost our way. Nuclear homes are no longer the norm, parents have ceased to be role models, and are both working to pay the bills; children have become latchkey kids, farmed out to anywhere but home. Parents no longer have the capability to discipline their children for fear of arrest, schools teach what ever they want, with no discipline, and no accountability. Children are babysat by the boob tube or video games, or spend hours on “social networks” or cell phones with friends. They consider themselves entitled to everything- cell phone, car (new), high starting salary, never to fail, etc… NONE of which have they earned by honest labor…
Our basic freedoms are being curtailed by political correctness and the PC police, reactive laws that penalize the honest and do nothing to stop the criminals but meet PC guidelines. Classic example, TSA can’t “profile” Arab males exhibiting nervous behavior, but they can stop and frisk your Grandmother and confiscate her nail clippers.
Those who believed the words penned by Emma Lazarus for the Statue of Liberty and work hard to be here legally, spend years on the waiting list for a slot and do the right things are being bypassed by a flood of illegal, yes, ILLEGAL immigrants who could care less about the US, and only want money have flooded into the US, taking menial jobs, taking over entire neighborhoods, and bringing crime and gangs worse than anything seen here since the Chinese Tongs in the 1800s. Since the advent of PCism late 80s and early 90s terrorists, including the 9/11 terrorists are here illegally but the lack of personnel to do enforcement, and lack of will to upset the PC police allowed them to stay here. We know what they did… and PCism is STILL the rule, to avoid “possibly” offending someone…
On the national level, we have a different crisis, one brought on by hate- The hatred of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and the Republican administration led by the democrats and the left wing liberals, supported by the main stream media has divided this country worse than we were divided by the Civil War. I personally believe part of the hatred was caused by the fact George Bush did his best for the country as a whole, did what he said he was going to do, and was not swayed by opinion polls, political correctness, politics in general, or threats from the left.
Now we have an administration that, by its own admission, made promises it KNEW it couldn’t keep, simply to get in office. Now that they are there, and control both houses of Congress and the Executive branch, they are taking us down the slippery slope of socialism. They regard the Constitution as advisory in nature, and only apply the rule of law when they can bend it to their desires.
They passed a “stimulus” bill with over 900 pork projects, and then they went after AIG over bonuses, but never said word one about Goldman Sachs, Morgan or the others bonuses (who backed Obama). The bankruptcies of GM and Chrysler have shown they don’t care about bondholders, only about the union base, contravening laws as they gave the unions a bigger stake than the bondholders. They fired the CEO of GM, even though they had no legal right to do so, put in place unrealistic CAFÉ rules which will probably force the end of SUVs and force us into tin can cars, because they can…
They have confirmed appointees that want to overrule the Constitution and put us under UN laws and treaties no other president has considered, much less signed. They have proposed a new Justice for SCOTUS who believes experience and feelings are better than laws for decision making, and are hoping they will get to add at least two more justices…
They have passed an energy bill that will cost trillions, and result in minimal reductions in CO2, because they can- They don’t care about the costs, impacts, or who will pay the bill (our children and grandchildren), and no other countries agreed to the same limits.
Health care is their next target- they want control of all facets, and I believe they will stop at nothing to get it. Meanwhile Canada is moving BACK toward privatization of health care…
We no longer have prayers in our schools, unless it is Islam; the 10 commandments are banned; we no longer say the Pledge of Allegiance in our schools, “alternative” lifestyles are now taught in grade school, history books are being changed to reflect PCism…
The democrats on the State House floor in New York State refused to stand or say the Pledge of Allegiance last week, because they didn’t want to…
They won, as they keep repeating…
I believe we MUST take back our country in the next elections, before it is too late…
All I have to say is this: