Working With Facts, Not Fantasies
Truth should matter more than Pep Rally slogans
One of my readers left a comment on a recent post referring to the Constitution as “what keeps us - THE GREATEST NATION ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH.” That expression or variant thereof, is one that I ‘ve struggled with countless times over the years, but especially between elementary and high schools.
I started to wonder early on - is that like our football team that had been the “Greatest” last week but just got pounded in the championship yesterday? And then I became particularly confused by my 8th grade history class. What I learned there, contrasted terribly with what I had learned in my church’s Sunday school, a few short years earlier. I grew up believing, right or wrong, that we were a Christian nation. The teachings of Jesus were nowhere to be found in our “great” nation’s history.
Back in the last century, students were encouraged to read about, and learn from, a full spectrum of American history. We read about centuries of land grabbing and wars, all across what is now the United States. There were relatively few scuffles with the indigenous people here until the early 17th century when the European settlers started claiming land that wasn’t theirs. Ditto for the central and western portions of our country, a couple of centuries later. None of that land was gifted to us by the residing Mexicans or local tribes.
I don’t see any “greatness” in things like stealing land or enslaving people from other countries. Merely acknowledging when our country has messed up and had crappy priorities would be a GREAT start.
What is great about the United States ?
A lot of things!
First and foremost, a majority of Americans would agree that having Freedom is a truly wonderful part of our Democracy. But sustained freedom for everyone demands an incorruptible link with its counterpart - the responsibility to respect the freedoms of others. That link has been broken and is in need of critical repairs.
How about our willingness to come together in times of crises - be it after 9/ 11, or after the many storms that keep pummeling fellow Americans? Never in my experience have fellow volunteers doing storm cleanup asked victims: “Hey, who did you vote for last election?”
And then there were the tireless front-line healthcare workers that died disproportionately while serving others during the Covid 19 pandemic.
Our educational institutions are the envy of most of the world, and per the US News and World Report, we are the best in education. However, our ranking regarding quality of education has been slipping, attributed to US government spending on education not keeping up with inflation over the past three decades. We’re ranked 38th in math and 24th in science, which correlates well with a growing misunderstanding of what scientific research and actual data is.
World Standings
U.S. SUICIDE RATES -14 per 100,000. The worldwide average per the CDC is 9 while Syria, Venezuela, Honduras, and the Philippines each came in with the lowest averages of around 2 per 100 K. If we can agree that very happy, mentally healthy people don’t kill themselves, maybe we could agree we have a serious problem and not a Great Thing.
GUNS PER CAPITA - The US is # 1 at 120.5 guns per 100 people - according to the World Population Review. Coming in a distant second is Yemen at 52.8. Russia has 12.3 and UK 5.1.
FIREARM RELATED DEATHS - per World Population Review. The US had 10.89 per 100k people, whereas Yemen with lots of guns also, came in at 1.37. Russia came in at 1.9, Mexico at 17.22 and United Kingdom at 0.24.
INFANT MORTALITY RATES - per UNICEF - The US had - 5.44 deaths per 1000 live births. Canada 4.38, Germany 3.1, Poland 3.74 Sweden 2.15. Estonia 1.65, Iceland 1.5
LIFE EXPECTANCY - The US is 47th from the highest per world data info.
HEALTHCARE SPENDING PER CAPITA - per WeForum.org. WE’RE NUMBER ONE AGAIN- YAY! The US spent $12,300 per capita per year. Germany came in second spending $7400, Canada $5900, South Korea $3900, and Poland at $2600.
Powerful. Some of our ideals are indeed great. Part of the tragedy of today's political division is realizing that we don't seem to have the same shared ideals.