AMERICA?

I want to believe in my country. I want to believe that Americans will be able to chart their own path as our ancestors have done. I remember reading in a small town newspaper that my grandfather and his cousin had innovated and rigged an apparatus to the front of a car and used it to harvest their crop of potatoes. This was around 1910-1915, when my grandfather was 20 or so. He went on to fight in the First World War.

Americans have always been innovators. It is what put us out front of all the other countries in the world. We were the country everyone pointed to and said, "We need to do that to get better." In the First World War, the Allies wanted us in the war, not for our great army, they were mostly conscripts, but because we were the economic engine of the world. They needed our capacity to manufacture stuff.

When the Great Depression hit the world America went into isolationism. In other words, America shut out the the world. When FDR came to power in 1933, incidentally the same year that Hitler became Chancellor, he ditched the London Economic Conference and that led to extreme nationalism throughout the world.

Deficit spending became the norm and that became the way out of the depression for the US. The problem is that the spending didn't end the depression. Unemployment remained high for the decade of the 1930s and no amount of nostalgia will change that. THE NEW DEAL DIDN'T END THE DEPRESSION. Sorry, that gets me exercised.

When the Second World War dawned, patriotic fervor took over and Americans of every ethnicity, rolled up their sleeves and went to work. Young men enlisted and went to war. Young girls went into the factories and went to work. It was a time that everyone pulled together. This time proved to all Americans that we can do what it takes to save our country and the world.

I'm sure feelings like this are quaint to some, but they are very real to many. When did we lose our country? When did we lose the will to excel? When did we find it acceptable to be second and even third place and not be Americans? Americans are winners. We don't apologize for being exceptional. We revel in it.

Now our president is on a worldwide apology tour. We, as Americans, are arrogant. Really Mr. President? Are we arrogant and do we need to apologize? Well, let's look at what we need to apologize for.

The North American continent was dominated by people who reveled in human sacrifice and intertribal warfare. Really? If they had been able to put aside their intertribal hatred they could have driven the outmanned pilgrims and the other English in Jamestown from the American continent. They couldn't do it. Why couldn't they get together? Too many grudges. It isn't PC? Sorry.

As for the Spanish, same applies. This vast land was open for the taking. Basically, the "Native" Americans weren't using it. Were the Europeans brutal, yes. Were the "Native" Americans brutal, yes. What is the answer to this dilemma?

There is a school of thought that "Native" Americans weren't here first. This find asks the question, were Europeans or their ancestors here first? If that's the case the term "Native" Americans is bogus. That would certainly mess up the history, eh?

History is up for grabs. All the America/Europeans as the oppressor talk has another side to it. We have only heard one. There is another. Europeans aren't all bad. Really? Flush your toilet, take a shower, drive your car, wear clothes that are cheap, eat fast food, go to college and take a flight across the country. There you go.

As for the First World War and the Second World War, well do you need more information?

In Korea, over 30,000 died. That was to protect South Koreans who really, now don't appreciate our sacrifice. In Vietnam, over 50,000 of our countrymen died. For the first time we asked why? In Grenada, Panama, the first Gulf War, the Balkans, Afghanistan, and Iraq, we didn't ask why, we died for others. The president said we aren't at war with Muslims. No kidding, Mr. President. See: Iraq, the Balkans, etc.

Look at our dead. Look at where they are buried. We never asked asked why, we just did. That's America.

I decorated my dad's grave yesterday. April 9th was his 80th birthday. He fought for his country. He is eighteen. The Korean War called. He answered. Enough said.