To America and The World
| The United States, which is considered by some, to be the greatest country on Earth, has certain issues which need to be addressed by it's government, it's justices, it's lawmakers, and the rest of the world, so they can perhaps better understand why we Americans are the way we are. |
| Please note that the contents of this Web page are not in any way traitorous to the United States. The contents of this Web page are merely an enlightenment or an awakening to the Americans who perhaps have not had an opportunity to travel overseas and experience for themselves the very essence of life in Europe. |
| It is also a plea to the U.S. government to strive for the betterment of the American lifestyle for all Americans and to recognize the need to keep first and foremost in their agendas, that work is a means to achieve a better life, not the other way around; that there should be some reward for working hard all one's life, even though each employee is replaceable. We must keep industry and our talents in the U.S. and not sabotage the very ground that free enterprise is based upon, which is U.S. quality products. We wanted to attract people of other nations to the United States so that we could build an eclectic repertoire of goods to be sold throughout the world bearing the United States sales tag. By sending our industries overseas and hiring cheap labor we have sold out the American ideal. The U.S. government is supposed to be a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Our government is corrupt and our news media has been bought. "Whoever has eyes can see". |
| Programs such as Affirmative Action are good for minorities, but very bad for the white male. Affirmative Action must keep strict guidelines when selecting specific minorities for jobs that require specific qualifications. If there are no minority applicants who meet all the criteria necessary for certain jobs, employers hire a minority who is not necessarily qualified, instead of hiring the best man for the job. This lowers the quality of service and products. I am not saying that Affirmative Action doesn't work. There are those people who would never hire minorities for jobs whether they were qualified or not. That's not fair either. In this way Affirmative Action made it a law that employers must hire minorities when they are qualified. The problem is that there aren't enough jobs and when white, black, Asian, etc. compete for specific jobs, the best man for the job should be the one who has the best qualifications. White males sometimes feel the sting of Affirmative Action when they've been told that they are the best qualified for the job, but because they need to meet their minority quota, the job must go to a minority. |
| Let me add also that my grandparents did not come to the United Stated until the early 1900's. My family was in no way responsible for human slavery, and for this I am very thankful. |
| I am an American and I love my country. I am a second generation American of Italian decent and when I visited Italy I thought I'd embrace the motherland. The trip was a pleasant one, but I found that I was not very welcome in the land of my grandparents. It brought new meaning to the saying, "when in Rome, do as the Romans do", because if we did not speak Italian, which we don't, we were not allowed in certain restaurants and/or stores because the shopkeepers didn't or wouldn't speak English.I was completely shocked. I sang "God Bless America" all the way home. |
| The perplexing question is, "why aren't Americans liked overseas"? |
| Since my trips to Italy, I've been very fortunate to visit Greece several times. The Greek people are very welcoming and I must say, will gladly speak English to you if they find that you are an American. Greece is a beautiful place to visit and it has changed my entire view of how life can be lived. |
| Being the youngster of all the nations on Earth the U.S. should not rebuke the idea that other countries, Europe for the most part, have a better way of life. After all, they've been around a lot longer. |
| America is the land of opportunity, it's said. America is the land of free enterprise, giving all the opportunity to open a business and prosper. The problem is that in a country where work is the attractiveness, we are literally working ourselves to death. Why work if you don't have time to enjoy the fruits of your labor? We work so much that we don't have time to spend our hard earned money except for necessities, which has slowed our economy. If we spend more, our economy would flourish. |
| In Europe people enjoy their vacations. In the U.S. most jobs allow only a one week vacation a year, maybe two weeks after five years. In Europe people have off the entire month of August beside their vacation time. This is the time when they travel. Europeans have learned to live their lives in a very satisfying way. Throughout most of Europe, college is free which is tantamount to equality among its people. Here in the United States only the rich or the very poor can go to college. There are those of us however, who have either planned, by saving for college for at least our first child, or who go broke sending their children to college because college costs go up so fast that there is no way to save enough, which leaves us very poor by the time we reach retirement age. This is true of the so called baby boomers. Unless you hit it very rich before your children went to college, the middle class earners have a pitiful looking portfolio by the time they have reached 50 years old, due to the high cost of educating their children and/or themselves with or without student aid. |
| College / University costs are deferred with student loans here in the United States if the student qualifies, however, our children are forced to live out of their homes in order to qualify because with both parents working usually the family income is much more than allowed in the formula for the deferred student loans. The problem is that in order to make that kind of money, both parents are working over-time and on paper it looks great, but in reality they are living paycheck to paycheck and could never afford to pay $20,000.00 to $30,000.00 a year not including books which cost around $90.00 each for their child's education. |
| In this day and age, even those students who don't have a high grade point average, thus earning a grant or scholarship, desperately need a college education in order to be able to provide for a family in the future. It has become very difficult to afford even food in the United States. Grocery bills are outrageous and should you want to buy those fresh products which are organically grown, you will pay even more, which brings me to my next subject. |
| Agriculture in the United States must improve. We are killing ourselves. The pesticides, hormones, poisons, and other practices legally being used by our farmers has to be readdressed. Europeans shudder at the thought of eating American food because it is literally poisoning us and making us fat from bloating...the way they're allowed to bloat chickens and wild stock. |
| Our livestock are fed arsenic, given hormones and anything else that will cause water retention, which makes the animals heavier and therefore more expensive at market. These hormones, etc., do not stop working when the animal dies. The meat we eat is causing us to have water retention, and therein lies a huge problem with American obesity. Whenever I'm in Europe, I eat more than I eat when I'm home, and I lose at least 5 lbs. Why must organic foods cost so much more when in reality, everything we eat should be organically grown. It is insane to feed the masses with hybrid experiments, and the few who are wise to the truth, pay through the nose for foods that are grown without chemicals, etc. |
| Another problem with our soil and water is the dumping of jet fuel. Before jets land, they have to dump their fuel. It causes a substance called Benzine to leech into the soil and water. It is obvious when you get a reddish ring around the inside of your toilets and showers, anywhere there is standing water for a day or so without being flushed. Why is this legal? I find it exasperating that the United States government is allowing this practice. There's got to be a better way. Back to the drawing board with your researchers. |
| Why don't we find out how they do it in Europe? Why don't we farm the way they do in Europe? Their foods are pure and wholesome and it's obvious by the taste. One thing though is that the steaks here in the United States are the best. A good corn fed beef steak here in the United States is far better than anywhere else on Earth. However, we need to have representation in Washington D.C. to correct the wrongs being done to our masses. Nuking vegetables which are sold in most supermarkets has to be researched to improve the situation. Our animals should not be fed anything except their organic grains, and the use of natural preservatives must be mandatory. Please legislators, do not poison us any longer...we are aware that it's happening and we are too busy working all the time to stop it. |
| We should take this lesson from Europe and learn how they afford to provide free college, pure foods and clean water to their citizens. We also should take the lesson and learn it well, how Europeans teach their elementary school children not only secondary languages, but the culture of these countries as well. Most Europeans regard Americans as spoiled brats because we have little or no interest in learning foreign languages, let alone learning their entire culture...that is the majority of Americans. Let's not forget that by immigrating to the U.S. our grandparents had their hands full just trying to survive on a day to day basis. The immigrants themselves, had to learn to speak English in order to work here. Most of us have no time because when we come home from work we are bone weary, and in order to take classes to learn other languages, we would have to dish out somewhere in the neighborhood of $13,000.00 for evening classes at a good college. I've tried to learn Greek using CD's but it isn't staying in my long term memory because I don't speak the language all the time. |
| The cost of college has to be dealt with. It is important to the well being of all Americans whether educating their children or themselves to be able to achieve better jobs. |
| Now let's talk about employee benefits. Those who are lucky enough to own a company which has survived the erratic economy of the past 20 years are not comfortable enough in their holdings to be able to afford the high cost of health insurance for their employees. Of course it is a law that employers offer health insurance to their employees and a minimum percentage must be paid by the employer, however, health insurance costs have inflated so much that weekly paychecks are waning rapidly. We are coming home with less money because the cost of health insurance is eating up our pay checks. Cost of living increments should be put in place as a law of the land, however, smaller companies cannot afford them. Smaller companies are sweating weekly payroll without cost of living increments of $.20 an hour pay raises every 6 months. |
| I just saw the new 2013 Blue Cross rates and for a family the price has gone up from $690.00 per employee to a whopping $1,600.00 a month. This isn't including prescription, dental, or eye plans. To include those, the price goes up to somewhere around $2,000.00 a month. Of course there are HMO's, etc., but those of us who have histories of certain conditions would rather stay with our present doctors. |
| Most of us are afraid to take too much time off from work because we'll lose our jobs. Since jobs are hard to come by, we stay in our positions and allow our employers to more or less bully us into lower paying positions with little time off. This creates employees who become resentful in one way, and abused to the point that their mental health is at stake. What kind of a life is this? It is understandable that employers want employees who are go-getters and who take their jobs seriously, but, we have families who love us and who need us. We need to be able to enjoy time with them and our employers are more like Scrooge. Employees must be given cost of living raises automatically; at least two weeks vacation; time off to see doctors, lawyers, etc. in the form of personal days, and we must be allowed time off for sick days. It is inhumane to tell an employee that he will be out of a job when he has a herniated disk in his back and needs to see a doctor. It is inhumane to force employees to work under hazardous conditions. I've seen men who are desperate to provide for their families work overtime to the point of collapse under sweltering heat and/or below freezing temperatures outdoors. It is inhumane to not allow breaks and/or lunch times. We work the extra half hour every day in order to get a half hour for lunch whether we take it or not, and most of the time I am too busy to take it. |
| Most of us take our jobs seriously. We are our jobs, in fact. We represent the companies we work for and we try not to, but most times, we take our work home with us because we need to do what we have to, to see that our company succeeds. Why don't our employers see this? When we ask for a raise, we're told that we could be replaced by someone younger who would work for a lot less money. Okay...this is beneficial to the company, but where is the loyalty to the employee, and why is the employee loyal when the employer is not? Why aren't these laws mandated for small companies? How can employers dictate unfair work rules, such as; if a job is an hour and a half from the office, you start work at 7:AM by coming into the office, then you leave to drive to the job site an hour and a half away, but the employer says that the job ends at the work site and you don't get paid for the extra hour and a half drive back to the office to drop off the truck??? This is an unfair work ethic. It should be illegal. |
| I'd be willing to work 10 hours a day in order to have a 3 day weekend every week. This works for many people. We should get at least a 2 week vacation every year in order to feel as if we're working FOR something. We need to get a life! We already have a job! |
| We fear for our pension plans, and fear that by the time we do retire, a new law will be enacted to tax our pensions so that all our planning, all our fixed income planning I should say, has flown out the window because Washington has decided they need the money more than we do. |
| Europeans regard Americans as obnoxious, impolite, spoiled, radical, rootin' tootin' cowboys. Anyone with eyes and ears knows that you cannot typecast an entire nation of people into one category. It is with some trepidation that I approach this subject. I am sure that there have been certain Americans who have visited Europe, with the attitude that the United States is the best country on the face of the Earth; that the United States won the wars for Europe and Europe should be forever indebted to all Americans and all Americans being protected by Uncle Sam are due respect and gratitude. This might have been received with consideration 30 years ago, but today European governments have come into their own. They are after all equal to the U.S. regardless of what we think. Their money is worth more than ours. The dollar is a paltry excuse for what America used to be. The United States does not own the entire world. We are however, big brother. We have won our share of wars and with the technology involved we are most likely better equipped to fight these wars. With peace comes understanding and cooperation, or perhaps I should turn that around...with understanding and cooperation comes peace. |
| What equates the greatest country on Earth? Is it how happy it's people are living? Is it how healthy it's people are? Is it how well taken care of it's people are? Is it the products the country sells? Is it how strong its military is? |
| The constitution mentions something about state militia which every state is supposed to have during times when the country is not at war. Why don't we have state militia? These state militia would protect state borders and interiors and would also be responsible for emergency responses to catastrophic damage caused by storms, etc. |
| The United States has given its ear and attention to those who want to make public their sexual preferences, and abortion preference, instead of worrying about national security. I can speak for the majority of Americans by saying, "sexual and abortion preferences should not be made public. These are very private matters. No one cares. This is between them and their maker. TMI, TMI...too much information! |
| Another problem we face is the separation of church and state thing. The separation of church and state was inserted into the bill of rights in order for people of other religions to live among one another in peace. The law was enacted for entirely different reasons. Read excerps from "The Myth About Separation of Church and State", below: |
Anytime religion is mentioned within the confines of government today people cry, "Separation of Church and State". Many people think this statement appears in the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution and therefore must be strictly enforced. However, the words: "separation", "church", and "state" do not even appear in the first amendment. The first amendment reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." The statement about a wall of separation between church and state was made in a letter on January 1, 1802, by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association of Connecticut. The congregation heard a widespread rumor that the Congregationalists, another denomination, were to become the national religion. This was very alarming to people who knew about religious persecution in England by the state established church. Jefferson made it clear in his letter to the Danbury Congregation that the separation was to be that government would not establish a national religion or dictate to men how to worship God.Jefferson's letter from which the phrase "separation of church and state" was taken, affirmed first amendment rights. Jefferson wrote: |
I contemplate with solemn reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church and State. |
The "wall" was understood as one-directional; its purpose was to protect the church from the state.The world was not to corrupt the church, yet the church was free to teach the people Biblical values. |
| The American people knew what would happen if the State established the Church like in England. Even though it was not recent history to them, they knew that England went so far as forbidding worship in private homes and sponsoring all church activities and keeping people under strict dictates. They were forced to go to the state established church and do things that were contrary to their conscience. No other churches were allowed, and mandatory attendance of the established church was compelled under the Conventicle Act of 1665. Failure to comply would result in imprisonment and torture. The people did not want freedom from religion, but freedom of religion. |
Thank you for your time. Please e-mail me with your thoughts and comments.