250 YEARS

By Bob Walsh

 

Tomorrow marks 250 years since the founding of the United States of America.  It is not a perfect place but it is a pretty damn good place.  A lot of people, myself included, think it is the best country on the face of the planet.  We are set up so our people can prosper if they care to and if they have the ability to.  We help others, sometimes maybe to the detriment of ourselves.  Not only our friends, but sometimes our enemies.  How many other came up with the Marshall Plan, or could have implemented it even if they thought of it.  Yeah, we have done some dumb stuff, some stuff that wasn't all that honorable or nice.  But we work hard at getting better.

The very first governing document on this continent was essentially Communist.  Have you ever read the Mayflower Compact.  It didn't work.  They dumped it about a year in because it didn't work.  The first government structure for the newly formed United States of America was the Articles of Confederation.  They didn't work.  Now we have a Constitution.  It works, mostly.  And can be changed if enough people think it needs to be.  It has been done several times along the way, including changes the changes if they didn't work.  What we have now is Capitalism and a reasonably strong central government wherein powers that are not specifically granted to the central government are to be held by the states or by the people.  So far, that has worked pretty well for us.

There are other countries that are also nice and I am sure their citizens like it there.  Norway is supposed to be full of basically happy people.  As is New Zealand.  How many people risk their lives to get smuggled in to other countries?  Not that many.

250 years ago 56 people (yes, they were White European men, mostly older men) risked their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to stand against the most powerful military power on the face of the world, and to give us what we have today.  

We fought our own civil war and lost 600,000 of our own people to set right a great injustice.  Almost  110 years ago we jumped into a war that we could have avoided if we wanted to, because it was the right thing to do.  About 85 years ago we got pulled into a war, and in four years we kicked ass and then helped our former enemies rebuild their countries and their lives.  

We are not perfect.  We are, however, the good guys.  We should remember that.  We no longer teach that in school in many places.  We should.  If we forget our history we are very likely to have to repeat it.  What we have works.  It gives a great degree of freedom and a great degree of prosperity for a large portion of our people and the opportunity for others to do the same.  I'll say it again.  WE ARE THE GOOD GUYS.      

 

EDITOR'S NOTE: Outstanding!