young nation

[alondra]

Young Nation.
this is my idea of our history, some maybe fact or just my imagination,
but I assure you, not that, if at all, taught in our schools today

we live in the youngest "nation" on the planet, while the rest of
the known world was being pillaged for centurys, our land lay dormant
and all natural resorces, undisturbed.
our ancestors came here and some great men risked their lives and fortunes, and many lost both,to form a nation. far diferent than any other on earth. this in an era of sailing ships, wagons, and four legged, and some times two, beasts of burden.
It was not perfect, many growing pains, witch hunts, burning at the
stake, come to mind. later over powerfull business tycoons, and
crooked politicos. some of this lingers to this day. but the nation,
thru trials and tribulations grew. to be a great industrial nation,
which supplied our people with all their needs. what we didn't invent
we improved upon. I use the term "we" loosely to include those before
us. I am in awe of some of the accomplishments of previous generations, The Empire State Building, Hoover Dam, the Golden Gate Bridge, are some, these were built basicly by hand. and I wonder if they could be designed, and built, with hand drafting equipment and slidrules, today.
one which produced much of the material to win WWll, a capability
that sadly, we have let deteriate. we have become a nation of consumers, a service economy, that imports, rather than manufactures, look on the shelves at your local store. our biggest export is money, which comes back to buy our land and industry, who owns , Chrysler, RCA, Goodrich, Motel 6 and even the Bic razor you used??? the list would fill pages.
no less important in my mind is the fact, I owe my life to the great medical advances. for which I am gratefull, to the nation of my birth, the USA.

[willy_ph]

Hey Alondra. You left out the genocide of the American natives.

Originally posted by willy_ph
Hey Alondra. You left out the genocide of the American natives.

Hey, willy_ph, you left out robbing them before the genocide.

And then there was that part about the slaves.....may have played a part in making of this truly great country.

[willy_ph]

Yeah. Making profits of people who you don't have to pay a single cent. That's a nice touch. American invention at its best!

[alondra]

how can I respond to the deep wisdom of these most relevent posts.

[CERuppel]

Alondra:

Please take no offense, but do one thing that has allowed this nation to be great: Read. The free distribution of knowledge that started with Ben Franklin and goes on today is the single biggest reason for the advances that you have found so wonderful. Argue if you will, but while the US had a public library system, most the rest of the world had state sanctioned book burnings.

[ClubMed]

In line with what willy and shahani are saying it did strike me as strange that you chose to say:

"...our land lay dormant and all natural resorces [sic], undisturbed....".

It seems the original native inhabitants of North America have been completely wiped out the minds of people today, making some of you believe that you found uninhabited land that was simply waiting to be conquered.

Not that I care to crap on your thread, because you have evidently done so yourself.

There is nothing wrong with being proud of one's country, which I presume was the intent of your thread, but there is something very wrong with false statements that are biased, and that one stuck out like a sore thumb, inviting such replies.

Imagine me saying that I am proud of Austria's rich history of tolerance, half the board would have given me the replies I deserve for such a biased and dishonest statement, no difference here.

Maybe more fairness and honesty next time eh?

[willy_ph]

How can we respond to the deep wisdom inherent in your post that completely ignores a substantial section of American history, that you wish to claim did not occur? If you're gonna be proud of your heritage, you have to be proud of both the good and bad things that occurred. Or at least accept that they happened.

I guess you really like your rose coloured glasses, eh?

[glohworm]

Gosh Alondra, I guess you better try to be more politically correct! It's not enough, I guess, to say how you feel from the heart without being dumped on about, of all things, the American Indians, duh!

I try to think about your posts without blurting out diatribe. I feel as you do and I will never be ashamed or humbled by some of the replies from the likes of Willy_ph, shahani, et. el. They simply don't have a clue where you're coming from! Keep posting. I happen to believe in your thought process because it comes from years of experience. We've got an awful lot of young puppies on this forum so please take this into consideration.

[alondra]

CERuppel
I could not agree with you more, I find deplorable the decline in our library systems, I grew up in an era when most knowlege and information was the writen word, and the visual was the news reels at the local theater. today a prime use of the library is the computers,and much of the printing is trash magazines

perhaps I did not think out my responce, it seemed that with all the meat on the bones these posts were more interested in a bit of dirt under the finger nails.
all nations have black marks in their history including my own. slavery being one of them, I would point out they were sold by their own people, and many whites died in freeing them. and yes the indians were over powered and mistreated, (in my area today, they are fighting among themselves over the spoils of the casino profits) as to my reference to resorces, the indians were mainly hunters and fishers, using little of the resorces to which I refere.
My Grandfather came here from England and my Grandmother from Germany, therefore I feel no guilt, for the above. no more than should the present day Spanish for their ancestors actions in South America.
I disagre with much my nation does, we should not be the worlds police, forcing our will, simply cause we can. we should bring out troops home and let other nations solve their own problems, and defend themselves, we have plenty of our own. I back our troops totally, they have no say in what they do . they can only follow orders, and as far as I am concerned they are badly under paid or appreciated.