I was raised a semi military brat. My father was in the Navy for a decade, and then went to work for an aircraft company. That left us still around the military and military bases all the time.
I never wanted to go into the military, but I loved John Phillips Sousa, the pomp and circumstances of the military, their parades, the flag, and I always felt a great deal of pride to be an American. When I was a teenager we lived in Italy. Folks would frequently guess my blonde self to be German, I was quick to point that I was an American.
This continued even through my protesting the Vietnam War. Somehow I divorced the policies of our government from the actions of my country. I was not proud of the war, but I was still proud of America.
Something slowly happened over the next several years. It probably began in the Reagan years. Up until that point I still naively believed that we had a government of the people, for the people. With Reagan I began to realize that it was really about the monied class.
Then came Clinton and the Republican strategy of Whitewater. Create any diversion to obstruct and derail any agenda except the ones narrowly focused on the 10 percent that control the wealth in this country.
Finally with Bush and the unjust, unfunded wars, what little pride I had in this country evaporated. The corporate takeover of our government was complete and total.
With Obama, Congress has turned into a joke. A segment of our political class would rather see the common folk go down in flames, to see the country go down in flames than work with the larger segment. I really do not see the other side in much better of a light.
We seem all too willing to go for the instant profit, the instant gratification. We have stopped reaching for lofty goals. We have stopped working to make ourselves and our people the best we can be (Oo-rah).
So many folks seem so concerned that someone may get something for nothing that they resent paying taxes. Our infrastructures are crumbling. Roads are in disrepair, bridges are falling down, and many of public buildings are in a disgraceful shape.
We are not investing in our future, in our children’s education. We lag far behind many countries in this category. A recent study (2008) by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development places the United States 18th among the 36 nations examined. Only 75 percent of our children graduate from high school compared to 93 percent in South Korea.
We do not take care of very large segments of our population. As a country, we are more than willing to allow millions of folks to go without health care, or at least adequate, affordable health care. The World Health Organization ranks the United States 37th in the world in health care overall, http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html
This puts us behind such power houses as Costa Rica, Chile and Morocco. Yet we are number 2 in health care spending as a percent of GDP. We are not getting the bang for our buck we deserve. Our infant mortality rate is 6.14 per 1000 births compared to Sweden’s 2.74 per 1000 births.
A segment of our population would like to dismantle any social program and remove all social security nets allowing the cards to fall where there may. The current HDI (Human Development Index) ranks us 13th in the world and falling.
We are so engaged in partisan bickering that we cannot solve the problems above, or pressing issues on immigration, the environment, budget or any number of areas.
I always have considered myself a news junkie, but I am so disgusted by what is going on with politics in this country that I have just about quit listening, reading or watching news. A disengaged population is a dangerous state for a democracy to be in. I feel this is where we are at currently in the United States, disengaged. We are far too involved in our reality shows, sports or game consoles, our Circus Maximi.
The UN puts the United States Gini coefficient at 40.8. Our own CIA puts it at 45. The Gini coefficient is a measure of income disparity. It is rising in the United States. It is currently close to levels seen in developing and 3rd world countries where you have an “elite” class exploiting most of the country. In the USA 10% of the population controls 65% of the wealth, that leaves 90% of us scrambling over 35% of the pie. In my universe that is wrong.
My pride and love of my country is at the low point of my life.
I know that I am not alone in this feeling, but I did not realize how wide spread this attitude was until recently.
I was at a wedding reception. At our table the conversation turned to our recent trip to Canada. We begin to discuss Canadians and our perceptions of them and their country.
Someone commented that the exhibited a great deal of pride in their country and in the fact that they were Canadians. Someone else commented that they were proud that they were not Americans. Several folks around the table nodded in agreement. Nobody bothered to contradict the speaker. Not to take anything away from Canada and Canadians, but it is sad commentary on where we have gotten to as a country. We as a country could learn a lot from our neighbors to the north.