Ours was once a young country with an equally young outlook. The spirit is still there in spite of factories being closed, unions being broken, American jobs being exported to places like India and China (that is now the greatest exporter of steel in the world), and a generation awash in the nonsense of social conservatism (worrying about what websites we visit, movies we watch and books we read, who we sleep with and how we express our deepest spiritual feelings) and general cynicism.
We were able to support our families on one job. One parent remained home to raise the kids who are now institutionalized from birth to death from daycare and pre-school to state-run homes for the elderly. Somehow the Average Joe, the guy who built this country and his wife and kids, having a decent roof over his head, clothes on his back, food in his stomach, a road worthy car in the driveway and a chance to send his kids to college was too much for those who saw the opportunity to go from rich to insanely rich by sucking the vitality out of the middle class. In a world where economic power equals national security, we can ill afford to destroy the backbone of the nation, but that's what we've allowed to happen. That's why people cannot make house payments and are being foreclosed on at alarming rates.
We must rebuild the middle class and we do it by rebuilding and re-opening factories, reinvigorating the unions, bringing work back from India and China by becoming more efficient and making our products and services more economically attractive. We need to go back to being the number one steel producer and exporter in the world. We need to make the best (and safest) toys, tools, cars and trucks. We need a strong aircraft industry. We need to have the tallest building and the fasting jet, and the biggest commercial airliners. We need to skip the trip back to the Moon and plan on becoming the first nation to reach Mars. We need to revitalize our spirit and regain our moral lead in the world.
We need to be Americans!
Our number one export is Liberty. More than guns and bombs (that we also need in the real world), we need to spread Peace and Justice through Love in ever-widening circles of affection healing the world one heart at a time, because that's what Americans do. We need to remember the G.I. who took the time in the middle of a war to get the Hershey bar from his backback and give it to the kid watching him march by, because, dammit, that's what Americans do. We are good and decent people who give a damn and fight for what's right - and what's right is Liberty not Empire! Who cares about ruling the world if it's a damned miserable world?
The New Colossus
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-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
—Emma Lazarus, 1883
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