This country, our country, is currently heading in the wrong direction. There are many ways to show how and why we are headed that way. But, as my mother so wisely tells me,
"I not only like it when someone intelligently communicates the problem, but I like it if they can also suggest a course of action that might avoid the train wreck.". So here is my attempt at doing just that.
America is Due for a Comeback
Americans love a comeback story, whether it be Lance Armstrong winning the Tour De France after overcoming cancer, whether it be John Travolta jump starting his career by starring in Pulp Fiction, whether it be the plot line of every episode of VH1's Behind the Music, or whether it be the ultimate American story of comeback and redemption, Rocky.
But the greatest American comeback story of all time can be put into motion right now: the Comeback of America.
In order for a comeback to take place, the subject must first, before its fall, have been great. In that respect, America more than fits the bill.
America gave the world the concept of a country ruled by a constitution, not a man, in order to protect the rights of the individual from being trampled by abuses of power.
America gave the world religious freedom, a place where those that were persecuted because of their religious beliefs could come and live free and peaceful lives.
America gave the world the telephone when Alexander Graham Bell perfected his patent, revolutionizing the way in which people were able to communicate with each other.
America gave the world electric light when Thomas Edison hit the switch in Menlo Park, bringing everyone once and for all out of the dark.
America gave the world the labor rights movement, proving that an economy can thrive while also protecting the rights of its workers.
America gave the world the automobile and the airplane when Henry Ford rolled out the assembly line and the Wright Brothers took flight at Kitty Hawk.
America gave the world the capitalist safety net, proving that a capitalist economy can thrive while also providing its citizens a safety net of social security and unemployment insurance.
America gave the world Jesse Owens, who showed everyone including his Nazi hosts that the color of one's skin has no bearing on the courage, dedication, and talent of a man.
America gave the world a consistent force working for the spread of democracy and freedom, whether it be fighting the war to end all wars, standing firm against Soviet communism, or pressuring for the end of South African apartheid.
America gave the world the civil rights movement, proving that gender and race based discrimination have no place in a modern democracy.
America gave the world the moon, when Neil Armstrong completed a decade long pursuit by taking one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
America gave the world knowledge, providing world class universities open to the best and brightest throughout the world so that modern studies of economics, engineering, and agriculture, just to name a few, could be studied and shared with countries everywhere.
America gave the world the internet, allowing people from across the world to communicate immediately with just a click of a mouse.
We were Champions of the World. We were Muhammad Ali. We floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee.
But now we have fallen.
America is the only western industrialized nation without universal comprehensive health care.
America is a country with a federal government $8 trillion in debt and a population $12 trillion in debt.
America is a country where the top 1% of the population have as much wealth as the bottom 90%.
America is a country whose entire economy is dependant on other countries for one finite resource: oil.
America is the largest polluter of greenhouse gases that have contributed to global warming.
America lost a major U.S city to a hurricane while much of the government argued and stood idly by.
America now has 12 million undocumented residents forced to live and work in the shadows by a broken immigration system.
America's public schools have a dropout rate of 30%.
America is letting religious doctrine determine how we conduct medical research and fight the global AIDS epidemic.
America is using Soviet style tactics of torture and imprisonment without trial.
America has alienated our allies and lost its credibility on the world stage.
America's military is bogged down in a civil war in Iraq due to a war that was started by our own aggression.
We are against the ropes. Our eyes our blurry, our head is spinning, and our knees our weak.
But there are more rounds left in this fight. We can make a comeback. We can search for what lies deep down inside. Like Rocky, we can pull ourselves off the ropes and get ourselves back on top.
America can improve prescription drug coverage for seniors by allowing the federal government to negotiate with drug companies to purchase prescription drugs for Medicare.
America can decrease the cost of health insurance by creating an agency by which the federal government can negotiate with private insurance companies on behalf of individual policy buyers.
America can eliminate pork barrel projects by legislating that federal transportation funding be dispersed based on a system of reviewing local government authored best-use studies and bids.
America can minimize government funded profiteering by outlawing no-bid federal government contracts.
America can stabilize our economy by increasing the national minimum wage and creating mandatory future increases that are indexed to inflation.
America can lower our demand for oil and cushion us from future supply shocks by increasing fuel efficiency standards.
America can hasten the achievement of energy independence by requiring a portion of federal agricultural subsidies be directed solely toward crops tabbed for use in sugar and corn ethanol production.
America can simplify the tax code by eliminating deductions while reducing the tax rates for the lower brackets.
America can force American multinational corporations to pay their fair share of federal taxes by basing multinational corporation tax payment on their aggregate worldwide profits multiplied by the percentage of revenues generated within the United States.
America can fully fund social security by eliminating the cap on the amount of wages that are subject to FICA taxes.
America can fight global warming by joining with the world to enact the trading of environmental credits to create an incentive for countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
America can improve our response to natural disasters by having a fully staffed and domestically stationed National Guard and Army Reserves corps.
America can work to solve our illegal immigration problem by providing a path to citizenship for undocumented workers already residing within the United States, and earmarking the first tax year's tax receipts of every newly nationalized citizen to go toward border and port security funding.
America can improve our public schools by matching the national minimum testing standards of No Child Left Behind with national minimum funding standards that are indexed to inflation.
America can make medical breakthroughs by allowing federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.
America can help fight the worldwide spread of AIDS by funding safe sex education in addition to abstinence education.
America can further the spread of democracy and freedom throughout the world by creating a consistent and legislated policy for the denouncing and sanctioning of countries engaging in human rights violations.
America can improve our national security and fight for peace by creating an international alliance with a specific and stated goal of combating nuclear proliferation and terrorist financing using carrot and stick diplomacy backed by a credible threat of internationally sanctioned military force.
America can bring our troops home from Iraq by having the courage to change course and lay out a definable set of goals for troop reduction.
We can make a comeback. We can run up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and throw our arms to the sky and know that we will be back on top once more. We were once champions of democracy and freedom, of human rights and human ingenuity. We can be champions again.
P.S. - Republicans didn't want to do most of the things that made America great in the past, and they don't want to do most of the things that can make America great in the future, so if we keep voting them into power, well....1....2....3....4....5....6....7....8....9....10....ding, ding, ding....stop the fight! Stop the fight!