America is often touted as "The Greatest Country In the World" by many patriotic people. I'm sure it makes some people feel good about themselves as if they're above the rest of the world while they forget they are only here due to the circumstance of having been born on US soil.
Ironically the metrics say otherwise. America isn't actually the greatest country in the world. Honestly we're not even in the top 10. Using the UN’s sustainable development goals as guideposts, which measure the obvious (poverty, clean water, education) and less obvious (societal inequality, industry innovation), more than 1,870 researchers in 124 countries have compiled data on 33 different indicators of progress toward the UN goals related to health. This massive undertaking uncovered some results that may surprise you: America is ranked 28/188. Response to natural disasters, HIV, suicide, obesity, and alcohol abuse all require more attention in the U.S.(http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-22/...)
With the latest season of "Who Wants to be The President" building towards a climactic finale this Tuesday with no good choice to be made, one of the candidate's taglines is "Make America Great Again". While it acknowledges the country's metaphorical fall from grace it also spawns a question: "When was America great?".
Was it when we said "All men are created equal..." except of course for black men, and Chinese men, and Irishmen? Was it great when we stripped Africans into a floating sardine can just to come here and do our work for us breeding and working them like cattle until their inevitable demise? Was it when we stole the Natives' land and kept killing and pushing them further and further back with war and pestilence under the guise of manifest destiny despite promising with crossed fingers every time this will be the last time? Was it when we pledged "liberty and justice for all" despite mob fueled lynchings? Was it when we used the 13th amendment to re-brand slavery into imprisonment? Was it when when we turned our financial system into the economical equivalent of the Penrose Staircase leading to a national debt can can never be paid off only pushed higher until the system collapses again? Was it when women weren't allowed to vote? Was it when the first aerial terrorist attack on US soil was committed by US citizens bombing "Black Wall Street" Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921? Was it when Oppenheimer quoted the Bhagavad Gita upon seeing the fearsome atomic power the US would use on Japan not once but twice? "I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds". Was it when separate inequality ran rampant with Jim Crow laws and the Civil Rights movement was stifled and fought at every turn? How about when we declared war on the poor instead of the drugs we said we wanted to rid ourselves of? When we bombed innocent men women and children in a pointless war we shouldn't have been in? When despite having 5% of the world's population we have 25% of its prisoners?
Feeling great yet? As star spangled awesome as we might to think we are the truth is America isn't that great. It never has been. Sure we've had some shining moments along the way and we have made progress in the last 2 and a half centuries. America isn't great but, it can always get at least a little bit better. The first step to solving any problem is admitting it. Once we can admit it we can start the path to greatness. America isn't great, but one day it could be.
