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What Happened to America?
Nicole Sandler, Air America
I
grew up hearing and believing that America was the greatest nation in
the world. I believed it when I was a kid, and I still believe that it was
true...back then.
But as I'm closing in on my 50th birthday and the reality that men age better
than women, I'm realizing that America
is also showing age spots, wrinkles, and even signs of dementia.
Once upon a time, the United
States of America was the richest, most
powerful, most morally superior country on the planet. People from all
over the world wanted to come here to pursue the American dream.
Now we all have cause to wonder whether the American dream still exists?
Or has it become a nightmare?
It used to be that every generation's goal was for a better, richer and happier
life. We knew that we could achieve a higher station in life than our
parents did. It used to be an attainable goal. Is that still
possible?
I think not, and the turnaround occurred while I was growing up.
While the rich kept getting richer, and the poor descended to depths that this
country should be ashamed of, the middle class now is on the verge of
extinction.
Middle class income has become stagnant over the past 40 years. But those
already atop the success ladder are climbing to even higher heights. Back
when I was ten, the average CEO made 40 times more than his average
employee. Today, that CEO makes an obscene 550 times more than
that worker makes.
Note that I didn't say "earns." That's because the
average worker earns a hell of a lot more than he or she gets paid
for. And the CEO? I can't think of one that actually earns
the ridiculously exorbitant paychecks they should feel truly guilty about
cashing.
Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman and former New York Governor Eliot
Spitzer (who should consider running again) were guests on Bill Maher's Real
Time Friday night. They were joined by filmmakers Michael Moore
and John Waters, and together the five of them made more sense on matters of
the economy than any of our elected officials I've heard on the same subject
recently.
John Waters, in a flash of brilliance, said "I expect a hint of socialism,
and that's an ugly word for a beautiful thought. And if my taxes go up a
tiny bit to pay for health care, I'm ok with that."
As we've all been learning, and as Michael Moore is preaching with his new
film, Capitalism isn't all it's cracked up to be. It's rife with
corruption, and is an inherently unfair system.
Although the wing-nut followers of Speck, Limp-paw and the Faux News cabal like
to group Socialism, Fascism, Communism, Naziism and all the other -isms
together, we know how to read history books and, more than that, know better
than to listen to any of the nonsense they're spewing.
We also know that there is a lot wrong with America these days. It's no
longer the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.
It's become the Land Full of Greed and the Acting Brave while losing our Homes.
Perhaps instead of Socialism or Capitalism, we here in America can start
practicing something called Compassionism, and head back on the road
toward where we were 40 years ago, when we actually cared about our fellow
human beings and the American dream was still alive and well.
One Comment on the Jason Leopold Article Hit Home
"For those who do not use Facebook, the Poll app is constantly full of very conservative views. The developer is very aware of this and, while I do not know their political leanings, condones a wife variety of anti-Obama and anti-Democrat polls using language and images that clearly point to a bias in the poll questions.
Granted, there are the usual reality TV polls too but you'd be surprised how much of a conservative bent is in this app.
Honestly, if were the developer of this app, I'd be happy to have someone shut it down over such an incident if just to not have my name attached to it.
I wish him luck in getting his app back up but, honestly, he had to know this was coming." Wally
So, the CNN clip reports the Pastor Anderson inspired one of his parishioners, Mr. Warren, to bring his AR-15 near a meeting where Barack Obama was speaking.
The Facebook poll indicated 15 millions of Americans wouldn't mind if President Obama was shot dead. Facebook wasn't sorry about the danger to the President. They were sorry the blogger reported the poll to the Secret Service negative publicity for the hate rag.
Words kill. FOX screamed "Tiller, Tiller, the baby killer" throughout twenty-eight separate reports on the abortionist. AttendingLutheranChurch services Tiller was shot dead. Bill O'Reilly is not in prison. Nobody likes an abortionist. Anderson and Warren walk free. Nobody cares enough about our President to clamp down on those who would demean, vilify and shoot him.
Secret Service Probing Facebook Poll that Asked if Obama Should be Killed
