DANIEL

How can Americans be so damned cocky? Sure, everybody wants their nation to be at the top, but the simple fact of the matter is that not only are we not the best at anything, but we haven't been for decades. Our educational system is failing, mediocre at best. Our medical facilities are decent, but certainly not the most advanced, or the most organized. Our politicians are some of the most bigoted, dishonest, and corrupt people on the planet. We are a racist nation, no matter what anybody says, unaccepting of anything that doesn't fit the status quo.

Our politicians have been misleading the people of this country for years. They lie, cheat and steal their way into office, and then sit their happy asses in their cushy chair for their full term doing nothing but argue pointless drivel in the hopes of swaying a large enough portion of the population to be re-elected. But it doesn't stop there! These people apparently have too much time on their hands, because while they're in office, they manage to mold the country into the perfect place for people to live. Assuming people only includes Americans with a gross income of over 5 million a year. Our political system has become little more than the ideal business venture. Elections are just popularity contests because the majority of our nation is too ignorant to care or even understand what's going on anywhere beyond the simple gratification of their tangible wants and illusory needs. Like everything else in our nation, politics feeds on greed.

Our public education system doesn't take people past a high school level. If you want anything that will help you in life after secondary schooling, you better have a scholarship, rich parents, or join the military. It goes back to politics. People complain about a poor educational system, underpaid teachers, lack of funding for schools, lack of security in schools. Inability to obtain a college level education because the government isn't helping. But then they elect the guy who tells them that they'll get tax cuts if they elect him, giving them more money to buy their fruit juicer and George Foreman Grill. Look at an almanac. See who's educational systems are the most successful. If I recall correctly, American schools aren't first, they're not even in the top ten. Seventeen out of Seventy-odd countries on this globe. Doesn't have us sitting very well, does it? I don't know about you, but I'd be willing to pay more taxes if the government would actually allocate them properly, instead of lining Senator Schmoe's pockets, and padding the wallets of the corporations. As if they really need more money.

It's true. Our medical system is actually quite good. But don't start gloating, we're still not number one. In order for us to be number one, we'd have to fix the Medicare issues (another chance to point accusingly at the government, join me!) to provide aid to the people who can't even afford the ambulance ride to the hospital, let alone the three day stay there that they'll require for recovery from the several knife and gun wounds they've suffered.

That brings me to my next point. We claim to be a cultural melting pot, a nation of acceptance and politically correct ideals. Unfortunately, as I typed that, someone was killed for being a white man in a black neighborhood after sundown. For the love of all that is good and hold, people die for wearing the wrong color of pants in this damned country!

Sure, you can go to another country. They'll be pricks, they'll be arrogant. That's to be expected. But I've never me a tourist in America who was still arrogant off their home soil. An American goes to Germany, and thinks the people there are stupid and ignorant for not speaking English. Pay attention to the world around you before you assume yourself to be superior.