Quote:
Originally Posted by Hottentot
Commenting the thread title a little, I have always had a problem understanding the concept of "the greatest country in the world", no matter which country we are talking about. I like Finland. It's a fine country. But is it the best? I have lived abroad and seen that some things are better there, some are worse and some are just different. I see no reason to call any country I have lived in "the best". Whenever I'm in one, I miss some things from some of the others. I suppose I could start ranking them, but I'd be more interested in bringing the good things from one country to another instead of that.
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That was the idea behind the melting pot. The best of all worlds right here. If I may....
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Emma Lazarus, 1883
And we still have the best of everything right here. But, all these comments about not calling one country or another the greatest... I can see the point of that. But it's part of the problem. Political correctness has run a muck. We don't want to strive to achieve the great deeds we used to because were too worried about offending some other country that can't accomplish the same thing. We're too worried about our image in the rest of the worlds eyes instead of worrying about being able to look at ourselves as a nation and focusing on how it makes us feel about ourselves. We've gone astray. We're so concerned about world opinion that we've quit focusing on what's wrong here and what we need to continue to strive to achieve. We built the Hoover Dam. People of all nationalities united together as Americans. Germans, Greeks, Irish, Chinese, Russians, French, British... We dug the Erie Canal. The Panama Canal. Mount Rushmore. We flew the first airplane. We put a man on the moon. We freed the slaves. (The confederacy broke away from the Union so it wasn't the United States.) The Trans-Continental Railroad. You know, this is turning into a speech but, I feel obliged now... We called the WWII generation the greatest generation. There are stories of men committing suicide here in the States because the Army, Marines, etc. wouldn't take them. I don't believe in suicide, but I can't help but think about stories like that. My Grandfather was part of that generation. He was a Marine on Guam.
I listen to his stories of what our country was like during that time, and listen in awe. I graduated high school in 2005. A week later I was in San Diego, California at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot. Yeah we all talk about a golden age. I joined for that reason. I wanted to feel that. Like I was part of something great. And I did feel that way, no matter what anyone says about Iraq, which is where I was deployed for 18 months. And I did feel that way. I was part of something great. But then I look at all the other people my age. Jobless... And proud of it. They've been to prison and talk like it was an accomplishment. Made them tough. Ha. They don't vote. They don't care. They wear their pants sagging down their hips, have haircuts that make you think what the hell kinda deranged mind cut that for you that way. Ball caps sideways. Throwing up their "yo's" and hand signs because they think it looks and sounds cool, but people like me look at them and wonder if we should call 911 because we can't tell if that's their way of communication or if they're epileptic and having a spas attack. Like Ducimus kinda said, our deeds make us great. But when our deeds involve acting like morons, not voting, or voting without having the slightest clue about what we're even voting for, we're just voting because Bobby and Kenna said they were voting for this guy without any explanation as to why.. Hell, I mentioned men on the moon... We don't even have a space program any more. We hitch a ride with the Russian's. Team USA at the Olympics wears uniforms made in China... Grandpa told me stories of a time where if it didn't say made in the USA it was considered complete and utter crap. We've lost our way. Speaking of World War II vets... That reminds me of another great quote by a great American... One of the best... Who loved America so much that the only income he asked for as President... So concerned with service to this great nation, instead of this great nation serving his status... He requested a dollar a year.... "Ask not what your country can do for you! Ask what you can do for your country." John Fitzgerald Kennedy
That's the problem with my generation. Lots of unemployed because of choice. Not because the jobs aren't there. They are there. I work in a radiator shop. Wasn't the only place I submitted an application. I applied at O'Reilly Auto Parts as a store clerk for minimum wage, a feed lot to shovel cow crap for minimum wage, and as a street sweeper and garbage man for the city. I didn't care what it was I did or for whom I did it. I sure as hell wasn't going to live off welfare. To this day, I have never received a dollar of unemployment, and have never drawn welfare. That's the problem with my generation. Most of my neighbors do. The jobs are there. But its a small town I live in, and I know my neighbors because they are people I went to school with. People my age. They refuse to work. Never worked a day in their life. All 23, 24, 25 years old. You know what the screwed up part is? They are living better than me... On welfare. Oh well though. Won't stop me from working. I'll make my living the same way most others who came here have, since the 1600's.