Posted on 01/23/2007 5:39:24 AM PST by Chi-townChief
The United States has long thought itself to be the world's moral compass and "peace" keeper. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright proclaimed the United States to be the "indispensable'' country. Yet abroad or at home, the reality is different. The United States, with less than 5 percent of the world's population, produces 25 percent of the greenhouse gases. It leads the world in per capita consumption of five basic commodities: grain, meat, oil, coal and steel.
President Bush, and most Americans, believe the United States to be the "greatest nation on Earth," or No. 1. But with no president has the actual status of Americans deteriorated more. The World Economic Forum recently concluded that in the last few years the United States has dropped from the most competitive country to sixth worldwide. We are 54th in the fairness of health care, 49th in world literacy, 41st in infant mortality, 37th in health care performance and 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy.
Americans do excel in material accumulation or varieties of violence, but trail far behind in indicators of collective well-being. The greater the decline of American well-being and international authority, the more insistent is American leadership that this country is No. 1.
This national disaster has been made possible by the loyal American taxpayer and an impotent Congress. As Iraq demonstrated, Congress rarely questions or is concerned with the human or environmental costs of American empire, abroad or at home. The chauvinist insistence that America is No. 1 masks a profound compassion deficit by most Americans.
Yes, my fellow Americans, ''the state of the union is good. We are good. America is the greatest!'' The louder it is proclaimed, the further from reality we depart.
Barry Weisberg, director, Violence Prevention Peace Promotion Strategy, University of Illinois at Chicago
Typical. Concepts that won't fit onto a bumper sticker are too much for these guys to grasp.
Reading this tripe, you can just feel the blind, seething hatred the left has for this country. These people are mentally ill.
By what right does this elitist use the letterhead of a taxpayer-funded institution to promulgate his idiosyncratic views? Either he is elected to a position where that's appropriate, or he writes in as a private citizen just like gusopol3
I like that one! The USA should just start handing out nukes to all the Eastern block countries and see how Russia, China, and Iran feel!
Forgot another energy-saving measure:
7. Ban all foreign university students and shut down universities since we obviously have more student slots than we need. Ban tenure since it is one of the most wasteful of our precious resource: students.
You got that straight - the people willing to leave everything behind in the old country and try to get here are the real poll results.
Barry is disappointed that the US hasn't fallen to communism yet even though the communists were about dead last in every measurement.
The stoners would admit to that.
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