Friday, November 3, 2017

WAS AMERICA EVER GREAT?

by David Causey

Note:  For contact information contact me and with his permission I will supply same.  Also, I added the bold face type.



         If you have had as much as a conscious moment over the last year and a half, then you’ve certainly heard the chant, “America never was great!”  This, of course, has been knee-jerk response to Donald Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America great again!”

         Well, was America ever great?  One’s opinion on the matter depends on the criteria they use.  If greatness is only measured on the basis of our pop culture’s tenets – e.g. “If it feels good, do it;” “America is all about racism and the oppression of women;” “Men of European descent are what’s wrong with America;” “If you’re heterosexual then you’re a homophobe;” “If you’re patriotic, then you’re a xenophobe;” “American history is all about the conquest and genocide of Native Americans,” etc. – then, I suppose, America never was great.

         However, if you measure greatness based on America’s historic role of defending and delivering the oppressed, on the charitable giving of its citizens, on its adoption of impoverished orphans from other countries, on its Judeo-Christian morality, on the quality of life that its people enjoy, on its system of government that allows all its people to participate in government, and upon whether people seek to enter its borders or flee them – then America has not only been great and remains great, but it is, by far, the greatest nation on the planet.

         What about America’s role in delivering the oppressed?  How does America rank among the nations?  Well, once we got past our Isolationism, i.e. from the time we entered World War II, America has served as the savior and protector of the free world.  America defeated the Nazism and Fascism of the Axis Powers, as well as the aggressive imperialism of Japan.  This was at no small cost to America.  The human price was staggering: the deaths of over 405,000 Servicemen, 607,000 wounded, and over 30,000 missing.  That’s well over 1 million casualties.  And in terms of money, America shelled out $321 billion (over $5 trillion in today’s money) to fund the war effort – at a time when our economy was less than one hundredth of what it is today. 

         And how did those vanquished nations fare after the war?  Did America absorb them into its empire, as the Soviet Union did to the Eastern European nations?  Not at all.  Instead, from 1947 through 1951 America pumped $22 billion (over $225 billion in today’s money) into West Germany, Italy, Great Britain, France, and other western European nations to rebuild their infrastructure and economies.  In addition to this, the U.S. gave $800 million to help rebuild Japan ($8.2 billion in today’s money).   And Japan has fared far better than any of the Soviet Eastern European nations.  Today Japan has the third largest economy in the world, only behind the United States (number one) and China (number two).

         And what about America’s Cold War casualties – that 54-year fight to contain Soviet and Chinese aggression?  It is estimated that America spent over $14 trillion dollars to defend the free world from 1947 to 1991.  In American lives, the Cold War cost us 340,000 casualties, including more than 94,000 deaths.  And who benefitted from the Cold War?  Did America?  Hardly.  But the nations of Western Europe, NATO, South Korea, and Japan certainly did?  Was the Korean War a waste?  Before you answer that, first contrast life in North and South Korea.  South Korea is a mega industrialized nation with a muscular economy.  North Korea is a horrific nightmare, whose citizens perish from famine and die from execution, starvation, and overwork in prison camps by the tens of thousands every year.  Believe me, at a great cost to itself America has been the major force for good and hope in the world over the last seventy years.  And keep in mind, as the world’s foremost superpower, America could have used its military for far less benevolent purposes.

         What about charitable giving?  How does America rank?  Among the great industrialized nations of the world, America is at the very top and has been for many years.  In fact, 2017 has seen an all-time high of $390 billion donated by Americans to charitable works – an amount that exceeds the economies of many wealthy nations.  It’s true that, on a strictly per capita basis, Myanmar (Burma) sometimes edges ahead of America, but almost none of this giving leaves the borders of Myanmar.  This is in striking contrast with America, which exports much of its charitable donations.

         But what’s the big deal, you say?  America’s a prosperous nation.  Why shouldn’t it give the most?  Well, let’s do a little comparing.  Remember Japan, the nation with the third largest economy?  Where do you think Japan ranks in giving?  Number 3?  Hardly.  When it comes to generosity, Japan only ranks at 114th place.  And China, with the second largest economy, ranks at 140th in generosity.  That’s worse than Russia, which stands at 126th place and oil-rich Venezuela, which is at 117th.  It makes me wonder, where would these people, who say “America never was great,” prefer to live? 

What about the desire of Americans to save orphaned children from other nations?  How does America compare with other countries?  In this respect America has no peer.  Americans adopt far more orphaned and abandoned children from abroad – regardless of their race or color - than any other country.  In fact, more than 2 million of its citizens, 18 years and younger, were born in other countries but were adopted by loving people of this most compassionate nation.

And what about our government, our quality of life, and the desire of people of other nations to live here?  Oh, I agree, our borders must be guarded.  But they’re not guarded to keep people from fleeing America, but from overrunning our borders to share in our unparalleled quality of life.  Obviously, millions of immigrants from around the world would not agree that “America never was great.”  And America’s government – a republic that allows all its citizens to choose their own leaders – represents the longest continuing democratic government in the world.  Since 1787 we have been operating under the same governing document – the U.S. Constitution.  Contrast this with France which has changed its government seven times since the French Revolution and Italy which has changed its government 51 times within the same period.

         So, the next time someone tells you, “America never was great,” just ask them to identify what they do consider to be a great nation.  I strongly suspect they’ve never actually lived anywhere else and really have no idea what life would be like elsewhere.  Chances are, they have no idea how good they – and everyone else in America - have it. 

Sure, this nation has some serious problems.  But they won’t be solved by symbolic acts like taking a knee during the National Anthem or by burning our National Colors.  America will only be mended by the difficult acts of love and reconciliation, and by fervent prayer to our Creator.



PRAYER:  Almighty and merciful Father, please bless the United States of America.  Please forgive our many sins.  Please heal our land of its divisions and its spiritual and moral sickness.  O God of our fathers, send forth Your Divine Spirit to turn our hearts to You in faith and repentance and to each other in love and reconciliation.  Please bless America and make her citizens spiritually sound and morally straight.  Raise America to true greatness and grant her supreme success as Your torch of freedom and Your instrument of peace throughout the world.  Amen.




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