The things we should thank America for

[Konovalov]

I read this excellent opinion piece from a newspaper back home that I thought I'd share here:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...1-7583,00.html

* Freedom of speech: Americans didn't invent it, but they embrace it more than any nation on earth. At every level of US society, it is empowering.
* Freedom of inquiry: It brought down one president (Nixon), nearly got another (Clinton) and remains the most important element of the checks and balances a decent democracy needs in order to improve itself.
* Cultural and religious tolerance: The US is truly the world's great melting pot. Just take a trip on the New York subway. It's not uncommon to hear five or six different languages spoken in one short journey. And guess what? Nobody cares. For religion, try a Mormon running for president. Could it happen anywhere else?
* Baseball: An acquired taste, but a game of wonderful nuance and sublime skill that is a worthy rival of cricket. One of life's great joys is a sunny afternoon at Yankee Stadium - with a couple of beers, of course.
* The Marshall Plan: Unlike the Bush-Cheney cock-up in Iraq, this was a horses-for-courses foreign policy founded in common sense. The result is the thriving Europe we see today.
* Muhammad Ali: Fighter, poet, patriot and one of the inspiring figures of modern history. "Ain't no Viet Cong ever called me ******," he said. Did anyone in the 20th century make a more profound observation?

Anything else that could be added to the above?

So thank you America and also happy Thanksgiving Day to all the Americans on this board for tomorrow. Thought I'd get in a day early.

[joea]

Very nice post for a change.

[Biggles]

Well really, I can think of loads of things that we should thank (and curse) america for.
Same goes for Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Mexico, Italy, Finland, Russia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Greece, Ireland, China, Japan, and any other country in the world.

The only difference is that america is so powerful, so it brings more curses towards it. Most of them are rubbish, some aren't.

[mookiemookie]

Jazz music, rock and roll, and our role in coming to the rescue in WW1 and WW2.

[Letum]

"Cultural and religious tolerance"


:rotfl:
From America?
Certinaly not in America!

[Kapitan_Phillips]

Thank you, guys

[AVGWarhawk]

I'm with Capt Phillips and the modern day gladiators of the grid iron

[ReallyDedPoet]

I love my Canadian Football, but the NFL just as much and of
course the Pack Thanks for these America




RDP

[Skybird]

The first three points are meant by what is written on paper, but if the political acting matches the intention in everyday life is something totally different. There is no country, as I see it, where the reality is matching what the constitution wants to see realised. And the US of let's say 70 years ago had a very dfifferent face than the US today - both are lightyears apart, imo. And if the "melting pot" is a successful thing or a monumental failure is something that is hotly debated until today: amongst politicians, sociologists, human rights activists, historians, ethnologists... so, I say on paper it was meant as a great place to live in, and was designed with the ideals and under influence of the lviving conditions of over 200 years ago. But paper is patient, and history and time change everything, and intentions are not the outcome at the end in reality. There is light, and there is shadow. There is potential that was formed into real things, and potential that was wasted.

The fourth point, Baseball, is profance in such a list, like the sixth one, muhammad Ali. ypou either like baseball, or you don'T. Me it bores to death, and it's subtelties are not worth a single cent to me. Muhammad Ali was a great (and initially very arrogant! ) boxer. let's name him like that, then.

Tjhe fifth point, on the marshal plan, there is nothing to argue. Itr was of great benefit for germany in the main, europe in the second, and the fact that it was launched by simple strategic calculations aimed against the Soviet union, and not so much with german's wellbeing on mind, does in principle not change that assessment. We took great benefit from it, and the West took benefit from the emerging, changed Germany as well during this confrontation that lasted almost half a century.

----

A point that I like to mention about what is America, is it's most fundamental potential to show a constructive fighting spirit, an optimism that things can get done, a mentality - that is almost proverbial - of setting about doing something, a very basic and deep-rooting sense of optimism. Of course, like everything that is intense, the intensity can can become painful and turn into the opposite, this is where these qualities then do more bad than good, and lead to an almost arrogant self-perception, a stupid stubborness, a rejection of reality if it does not cooperate with what America wants it to be, a view that does not see that others are different and may not wish to be like america and that not all world is - or should be - like america, an attitude of where you cannot tell America anything. But where the before mentioned positive qualities are developing within reasonably adequate dimensions and avoid to turn into their pervertion - there you see the best example that America can point for the world, and usually that is when people are jubilating for it.

therefore, the best you can do is never forget to see america with a strong awareness for subtelties, and watch at it in a differentiating way. That way you can see the positive - and will not oversee the risks that this can also turn for the negative, and eventually this awareness is sufficient to avoid the latter and indeed realize the first, and stick to the golden middle path instead of falling for excessive bias and prejudice and by that spoiling the potential that could eventually turn out to show the best in what is called america.

And that is not so much a country only - it is an idea.

For weighing all this positive potential against the risk of turning it for the worse by excessive bias, i am a critical but in principle: substantial friend of the ideas that America was wished to be.

[kiwi_2005]

Chuck Norris & Movies - Americans are great story tellers.

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by kiwi_2005

Chuck Norris & Movies - Americans are great story tellers.

Churck Norris? Are you serious?

[FIREWALL]

NEAL STEVENS
&

SUBSIM.COM

[Peto]

John Wayne and Stevie Ray Vaughn. RIP to them both! Big Band Music. Avalon Hill (what we did before computers ). Olive Garden Resturaunts. Chilidogs with everything. Cajun Crawfish. Subsim forum. Jerry Springer--(woops ). Setting a benchmark for the rest of the world on how not to consume energy.

Go Packers!!!

[joea]

Originally Posted by Letum

"Cultural and religious tolerance"


:rotfl:
From America?
Certinaly not in America!

Oh and where else then? UK perhaps. Not better though.

[Biggles]

Hm...okay, america has given us:

(bloody happy about that btw!)

(without him, Monty Python wouldn't be the same.....)

(Okay, we owe you one for him)

(NOT to forget this bloke! Bloody marvelous!)