When I was born in 1944, America was a strong and proud country, victorious from World War II. I grew up feeling so proud and blessed to be an American.
My father was highly respected by the citizens because he had been a lieutenant in the Navy during the war. After the war, he owned a real estate office and my mother was a teacher; they were living the “American dream”. At school my brother and I memorized patriotic songs, such as:
And crown your good with brotherhood,
Unfortunately, the “United States of America” no longer exists.
In recent years, we have been reduced to a bizarre assortment of alienated factions residing in the 3,000-mile “war zone” that stretches between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. “I am an evangelical Christian and I will persecute you because you are Jewish.” “I am a pro-life and you are an abortion rights activist who supports the murder of children.” “I am a pacifist and you are a gunfighter who thinks he has the right to kill innocent people as he pleases.” “I hate you because your skin is a different color than mine.”
A society infested with hatred, anger, fear, persecution, dishonesty, mistrust and violence is indeed a toxic society! Unsurprisingly, life expectancy in many Western European countries is up to six years longer than in the United States. (see end of column)
White supremacy is not a new disease in America. Although Thomas Jefferson is revered as the founding father and author of our Declaration of Independence, he was nonetheless a slave-owning racist who believed that “blacks are inferior to whites in both body and mind … This is a powerful obstacle to the emancipation of these people. “(Thomas Jefferson quote, 1788.) Jefferson was also a brazen sexist who believed that a woman’s role was” cleanliness and pregnancy … No effort is needed to educate her in matters that they didn’t seem useful in their place as wives and mothers ”. (quote from “Jefferson’s Views on Women” by Thomas O. Jewett.)
Jefferson’s own wife, Martha, died at the age of 33 from complications resulting from the birth of her sixth child in 10 years of marriage.
Jefferson’s belief in “Life, Freedom and the Pursuit of Happiness,” which he advocated in the “Declaration of Independence,” applied only to white men, not blacks, women, Native Americans, or anyone else.
While white supremacy isn’t new, it found its voice in the character of Donald Trump, her contemporary poster child, who elevated the disease to the status of a pandemic. Innocent black men are profiled, targeted and killed by the police. Women are denied their reproductive rights. The average income of a CEO is 351 times that of the average employee. The privileged class receives substantial and undeserved tax breaks.
The United States boasts 55 million more civilian-owned weapons than the country’s inhabitants, and domestic terrorism has become at least a weekly occurrence.
Americans are ruled by the blatant corruption of some politicians, the genuine greed of many CEOs, and the omnipotent autocracies of the NRA and AMA. Anyone who still believes that America is a democracy only desires what could have been.
I am no longer proud of being an American.
I am ashamed of what our country has become, frightened by the violence and cruelty I’ve seen recently and angry that our only national experiment in democracy is failing.
We were once a nation of “Rags to Riches”, living proof of the “American dream”.
Where is that “dream” now? Gradually it withered and withered into the American nightmare.
* According to the 2022 statistics, the life expectancy in the United States is 78.79 years. According to the 2022 statistics, life expectancy in Western Europe is as follows:
The writer, a longtime Norton resident, is a retired contract professor of French who has worked at Bridgeport University in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut.
Who is Alicia Menendez mother?
Is Alicia Menendez Mexican? Early life. Menendez grew up in Union City, New Jersey, the daughter of United States Senator Bob Menendez and Jane Jacobsen. His father is a third-generation American and US senator of Cuban descent; and his mother is of German, Norwegian and Irish descent. She graduated from Harvard College in 2005.
Who is the host of American voices?
Alicia Jacobsen Menendez (/ ÉËliËsiÉ / É-LEE-see-É; born July 2, 1983) is an American television commentator, presenter and writer. She is the author of The Likeability Trap: How to Break Free and Succeed as You Are and an anchor for MSNBC. From 2020 it hosts American Voices on Saturdays and Sundays on MSNBC.
What ethnicity is Alicia Menendez?
Menendez grew up in Union City, New Jersey, the daughter of United States Senator Bob Menendez and Jane Jacobsen. His father is a third-generation US senator from the United States of Cuban descent; and his mother is of German, Norwegian and Irish descent. This may interest you : Demystifying video games for parents. She graduated from Harvard College in 2005.
