USA Pride / Euro Concerns (page 2)

IslandWoman

Hi Amazing,

Thanks for your post.

Many U.S. politicians have failed America. Too many suffer from the tunnel vision of their political party and it seems in a loyalty test would find it hard to choose between party and country, because like Jehovah's Witnesses and their Org., for them Party IS Country.

The American people in general have also failed America. Many are satisfied with too little, any politician that promises some sweet nugget in a short soundbite has a chance to become President of the United States, others vote along party lines no matter what. I know that is an over simplification but from the looks of the last Presidential election that's the way it seemed. Promise them a tax cut and they will pave your way to stardom.

Political education is lacking among the electorate. Many of the very people whose job it is to "hire" a President and a Congress are ignorant of the whys and hows of the Constitution and U.S. history. Ironically, while most professions require higher education our politicians get by with on the job training. The very people who are elected to run the local, state, and federal governments are not required to have had professional training in Government, in American history, in the political sciences etc.

IMO, high school and college kids should be offered the opportunity to enter politics later in life. Along with their chosen profession they should also have an intense course on serving in government and the rewards that come from being among those who have worked to further the interests of this great country. Politics needs to be taken out of the gutter and raised to where it should be: a means of making the Constitution work.

The American people need to be interested in Government all the time not just on election years and they need to hold their politicians accountable. In addition, an adult American who sings the National Anthem and pledges allegiance to their flag but does not understand their Constitution and why it was written the way it was, does not deserve the sacrifices made by their military.

Americans have much to be proud of and much to work to do to ensure that future generations can also have pride and a share in guaranteeing life, liberty and the pusuit of happiness for all, as politically educated and responsible civil servants of the American people.

Sorry for the soapbox tone of this post.

IW

(the above is a statement of opinion and is not meant as anything more)

Amazing

Ahhhh ... Kent:

Please don't force more American cultural terrorism on the rest of the world.

The guy who knee-jerks to headlines without even reading the content ... no wonder ... oh well, that's okay Kent buddy ... we understand.

Amazing

Ahhh . ... again ... Kent ... I knee-jerked to your post headline before I read the rest ... opppps ... sorry ... embarassed ... yikers! ... well, we are learning metric ... I did in engineering and used it all the time ... like it better ...

IslandWoman

Hi Kent,

Even when Americans do use a metric unit, they get it wrong.

A metric what? "Metric" uhh let me see, oh yeah now I remember. Every measurement based on ten, tens, tenths etc. There's no diversity and imagination in it! Now, 12 inches in the foot, 3 feet in the yard, 4 quarts in a gallon, 16 ounces in a pound.....now that is shear genius at work!

There is beauty in asymmetry don't you think, a kind of freedom.

IW

Nikita

Thanks Amazing, I think you did a good job at trying to bring balance and perspective to this whole matter.

I try to understand someone else's perspective, you brought out some good points about nationalism I hadn't thought about. In part, I think I will sometimes have to accept the fact that I will never fully appreciate someone in Europe's point of view anymore than I can expect them to fully understand mine.

Kent, point well taken! Gosh, I can remember when I was in grade school and they said by the time I would graduate high school, America would be fully switched over to the Metric system. Well, high school came and went (1983) and I am teaching my 7 year-old the metric system, but I don't see us as a nation on the whole any closer to that goal!

Nikita

proplog2

Amazing:

The most wonderful thing about the USA is its constitution. It is an enlightened document. Fortunately the USA has been isolated from the rest of the world long enough for the constitution to take firm root.

dungbeetle

So THAT's how you see it? That explains a lot of your really DEPRESSING posts...

BeautifulGarbage

Well done, Amazing. You made some great points.

And it is because Americans as a people, in general, do care about our European brothers and sisters, and that is why we feel their criticism more harshly.

I know for myself, being the half-breed I am (half german-speaking Russian and half Irish), many Americans still strongly indentify with our European roots. It wasn't very long ago that our family lived THERE.

Even when Americans do use a metric unit, they get it wrong.

I'll have you know, Kent, that the US does sell its sodas, at the supermarket, in two LITER bottles!

It was the only thing that stuck after they tried to get us Americans to switch over to the metric system.

Andee

Xena

American Inventions

Cash register

1879

James Ritty

American

Adding machine	1888	W. Burroughs	American
Mechanical computer	1928	Vannevar Bush	American
Automatic digital computer	1944	Howard Aiken	American
Electronic digital computer	1946	J.P. Eckert J.W. Mauchly	American American
Electronic pocket calculator	1972	J.S. Kilby J.D. Merryman	American American

Cotton gin

1793

Eli Whitney

American

Zipper	1893	W.L. Judson	American
Rubber heel	1896	H. O'Sullivan	American

Nylon

1937

W.H. Carothers

American

Typewriter

1829

W.A. Burt

American

Telegraph	1837	S.F.B. Morse	American
Morse code	1838	S.F.B. Morse	American

Rotary printing press	1846	Richard M. Hoe	American
Web-fed rotary press	1865	William Bullock	American
Telephone	1876	A.G. Bell	American
Phonograph	1877	Thomas Edison	American
Microphone	1878	D.E. Hughes	American
Linotype	1883	O. Mergenthaler	American
Fountain pen	1884	L.E. Waterman	American
Flexible roll film	1884	George Eastman	American
Halftone engraving	1886	F.E. Ives	American
Monotype	1887	Tolbert Lanston	American
Kodak camera	1888	George Eastman	American
Movie projector	1893	Thomas Edison	American

Sound motion pictures

1922-26

T.W. Case

American

LP record	1948	Peter Carl Goldmark	American
Polaroid camera	1948	Edwin Land Walter H. Brattain	American American

Videotape

1956

Charles Ginsberg
Ray Dolby

American
American

Compact disc interactive

1986

Richard Bruno

American

Air conditioning

1911

W.H. Carrier

American

Ice-making machine	1830	Jacob Perkins	American
Reaper	1831	Cyrus McCormick	American
Steel plow	1837	John Deere	American
Refrigerating machine	1851	John Gorrie	American
Condensed milk	1853	Gail Borden	American
Harvester	1858	Charles and William Marsh	American
Refrigerator car	1877	G.F. Swift	American
Milk test	1890	S.M. Babcock	American
Quick-frozen food	1925	C. Birdseye	American
Microwave oven	1947	Percy L. Spencer	American

Cardiac pacemaker

1932

A.S. Hyman

American

Oral contraceptive

1955

Gregory Pincus

American

Elevator

1852

Elisha G. Otis

American

Airplane

1903

Wright brothers

American

Submarine

1775

David Bushnell

American

Kingpawn

In 1973 Canadian broadcaster Gordon Sinclair turned on his radio one morning, heard about the decline of the US dollar on European exchanges, and in a burst of indignation wrote an editorial he delivered on-the-air titled "The Americans." It makes interesting reading both for those who criticize us for our pride and for those apologizing for America's actions.

I have a printout and I believe the web address is http://www.rec.ryerson.ca/cci/news/umque/am_text.htm or you can look for it yourself.

In it, Mr. Sinclair points out how often we've gone to the aid of others having floods, earthquakes, famines, and so on; helped build or repair dams so they don't fall in `quakes; rebuilt railroad systems deteriorating through age; supported the currency of France in 1956 (and our reward was to be cheated and swindled on the streets of Paris which he personally observed).

And many times when we faced the identical problems, no one helped us. He doubted we got help during the 1906 `quake in San Francisco; and at the very moment he spoke, the Mississippi River bottomlands were flooded, and no one helped. And when the Pennslyvania Railroad and New York Central Railroad went broke, no one helped us.

Scandals, he said--America puts hers right out front where we can all see them (his air date--6/5/73--was about a year to the day after the Watergate break-in). And technology--with Japan, you get radios. Germany, cars. America--men to the moon several times, and safely home again. And there was more he said in defense of us.

Sinclair made no money off this. All the profits from a recording of his editorial--and later, from a Detroit dj who'd pirated it--went to the American Red Cross, which that morning had revealed...it was broke. And the year not half over either.

I could go on. In 1975 I read "The Ultra Secret" where F.W. Winterbotham revealed that, almost from Day 1, the Allies could read the German's ENIGMA cypher messages. Nowhere in his book does he mention America's contribution to the effort at NCR in nearby Dayton Ohio, though he admits that had the Allies not had this ability--maybe the war would've ended differently.

So if someone on the other side of the pond doesn't like how we do things,

1. repay any monies including interest still owed to us under the Marshall Plan and the Truman Policy, for starters,

2. do it yourself, and

3. don't bother us for help.

At least then you won't be taking our money with one hand and stabbing us in the back with the other.

USA Pride / Euro Concerns

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