There are times I am loathe to label my country a "civilized" nation. Developed? Absolutely. But it's hard to call it civilized when its citizens care so deeply - and appropriately, I believe - for the life of an unborn child, but steps away once the child is born, when polls show the majority of Americans are against both gun controls & universal health care, when the wealth of the wealthiest among us is close to reaching an all-time high while the poorest among us are on track for reaching the lowest in half a century, when our approach for fixing a clearly broken economy is to slash taxes on so-called job creators (who, incidentally, are apparently not creating jobs) as well as a century's worth of financial & social services reform, that talks about reining in "free stuff" for the disenfranchised while spending billions on bail outs & tax breaks for the privileged & powerful. when in my own state we're ready to make it difficult or impossible for up to 500,000 Pennsylvanians to vote in November in the name of protecting us against alleged but unproved "rampant" voter fraud..
We are a wealthy nation, but can we still call ourselves prosperous? One thing that the whole brouhaha over Gov. Romney's tax returns has revealed - and it is not disparaging to him - is that our economy is rigged to overwhelmingly benefit the people who already have at the cost of those who have not, or have less.
It's clear that we have an amazing capacity for people to make an amazing amount of wealth. We are, indeed, a wealthy nation. But how do we take care of those among us - including myself - who through no fault of their own have no access to health care? How do we take care of children who, through no fault of their own, are born into poverty? How do we take care of our parents & grandparents who no longer work, or those who through no fault of their own can't work?
For our nation's first 150 years, people all over the world were awed by our resources & resourcefulness. We had a continent that had been left undeveloped, in spite of being inhabited for thousands of years, woodlands prime for cutting down & turning into rich farmland, harbors prime for commerce, prairies prime for the bite of the plow & harvesting by the reaper, settlements all over the country prime for welcoming hard-working men & women to make their way in our fledgling country.
Over the past century, people looked to America as a land that gave shelter & even aid to those who needed it, who balanced caring for our citizens with a robust commerce that made it all possible. We successfully combined capitalism with a sense of - excuse what for many is a reviled phrase - social justice.
Look around - are we a happy nation? Are we satisfied with our accomplishments? Do we look around & take a sense of pride in what we see around us? We are a wealthy nation, to be sure, but are we prosperous?
