Lets's put the shine back in America

Let’s put the shine back in America

When you are from another country and think of America, you might envision this bright shining place where everything is possible, and everyone has a chance to succeed if they work hard and want it bad enough.

I remember the day my plane landed in New York. The terminal was so bright and modern compared to the terminals I had seen in Switzerland, England & Iran. Then my flight took me to San Francisco where my brother picked me up in his Ford to drive to Redding, California, where I would be going to college.

Everything along the way was so fresh, and I was ready to burst into the new place and claim my share. Our first stop at Denny’s for dinner was awesome. I had the combination platter that was a hamburger and fries. The thousand-island dressing on the hamburger was so new to me that I did go back regularly to have that same order.

You have to be from another country or have visited other countries to appreciate and love this great land called the USA. It is and always will be the land of opportunity for the natives and the immigrants alike. However, in the past ten years we have tarnished the image of America and we need to put the shine back on it.

To me, education is discipline. Even if you do not learn a single thing scholastically, it will make you a better person and the discipline will give you the drive to go for the seemingly impossible, which “is” possible in America. We all went to school to obtain knowledge for our future career, and when we were done; we were expected to use this knowledge for the betterment of the jobs we held and to advance progress. Our financial institutions have the newly educated people who are not there for the betterment of our system and society, but to devise systems to take advantage of ordinary people with shadowy schemes. Our politicians are still feeding us garbage and fooling us to vote for them. Their only self-satisfying agenda is to qualify for the outrageous retirement benefits and book/speech tours they can profit from.

Our stock market is nothing more than a big gambling casino where they try to lure the public in by phony news reports and hypes to sell the worthless stocks. As soon as we are fooled enough to buy, they pull the rug out and here goes another scheme they profit from.

We need to wake up, get our standards raised, and get rid of these politicians who have been feeding us the same garbage. We need to get the other countries to respect us again (not by throwing money at their problems, but by creating good-will through valuable and necessary assistance). Money is a tool to use as a carpenter uses his hammer and saw to make products. Money should be used for what it is, a tool to build strong foundations, build industries that are essential to our well being, and by creating jobs that are long lasting rather than here today, and gone tomorrow.

Each one of us needs to try to be a better person and do our best to raise our standards of expectation from our government representatives. They in turn should do what is right for us and help other countries to advance. Only then can America start polishing its image and bring the shine back.
I miss the shine, don’t you!