From the
Upper Deck
The USA: We Do It Better
By Jim Steele
steele@mckenziebanner.com |
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I was giving some thought about this coming Fourth of
July weekend.Let's be honest, given all her faults, the U.S of A.
ain't a bad place to be. I think a lot about the
American spirit and its indominatable nature. We have
industrialized the world. For better or worse, we gave
humanity compound interest, electricity, postal service,
parcel service, the telephone, the light bulb, the
recording industry (though that may not be as virtuous),
the airplane, pet rocks, mood rings, microwave ovens,
skater punks, dude, cold beer (not that I'd know), ESPN,
emoticons, Windows and Mac operating systems (again,
maybe not a good thing).
America continues to be the International 9-1-1 when
trouble brews. George Washington once said it is
necessary to have a strong defense, not to fight a war,
but to keep the peace. Think about what a chaotic mess
this world would be if we didn't have that
intercontinental fly-swatter with which to smack these
pipsqueak parasites.
When an earthquake rocks Turkey, famine strikes Senegal
or monsoon rains flood Bangladesh, America is there to
help with financial and humanitarian aid. We ante up
with plentiful food and cash.
However, in 2001, 57 American cities were significantly
trashed by tornadoes, yet we received not one dime of
foreign assistance. What does that tell you? And they
call us arrogant?
During colonial times, this notion of liberty made
manifest the American spirit. We decided we were tired
of British nonsense and made their backsides as red as
their red coats. In 1812, the British still didn't learn
their lesson and wanted to go some more. This fellow
named Andrew Jackson put the ol' hickory to redcoat rump
again, and off they went.
We decided we needed easy transportation, so we created
a transcontinental railroad. We needed to see where we
were going, so we invented the light bulb. We decided
there was a better way to get to Europe, so we presented
Charles Lindbergh. We decided it would be cool to play
golf on that 18-million hole course known as the moon.
We thought it up and decided to go and came back safely.
Those six flags flying on the lunar surface happen to be
American flags. And Alan Shepard had a crummy lie on the
14th fairway at Fra Mauro, where his golf ball still
remains lost today.
They aren't Burmese, Tibetan or even French banners on
those crater-pocked plains. It's Old Glory, folks, the
red, white and blue.
As Toby Keith says, "it's the American way."
I left out the dirty stuff.
It burns me up when the hang-wringers of the
left-leaning media tell us that we need to "do it more
like Europe," whether it's socialized health care,
lenient drug laws or insomnia-thwarting athletic
contests. I'm sick of Saturday soccer when there should
be baseball on TV. The Europeans brought us that lovely
sport in addition to cricket, rugby and bicycle racing.
They brought us warm beer. They brought us the French,
too. A bar of soap and a razor, please.
Leave it to us to invent our own sports. And leave it to
American spectators to be well behaved at them, for the
most part...unlike over there.
Which brings me to a point. We excel in baseball,
basketball and football. We are the defending Olympic
gold medalists in baseball and basketball. If they had
football, we'd win that, too.
Sure we've hiccupped a time or two on the international
stage, but more often than not, it is other nations
catching up to us, not the other way around.
Ok, yeah, we might not be the greatest at bobsledding,
ski-jumping or international handball. You know why? We
just haven't made it a priority yet.
We are Americans. Not only can we do anything we want,
we WILL do anything we want and we'll do it better than
anyone else.
If that makes me an arrogant American, so be it. But
that just confirms the fact I'm right. We've earned that
right, like we have all the others. |
