Real American Hero!

Yes Aeocean,

All things come to an end some day, including America, including planet earth, including our solar system.
But you have to assume that in the interim that life has some value, and that how humans live have some value.

You say you live in a Latino-majority neighborhood. Well I am Hispanic(Mexican-American, 5th generation American), and I grew up in south Florida where more recent Hispanic immigrants from Cuba moved to escape death and an incredibly brutal dictator. These Latinos from Cuba who lost everything they had, don't see America as just "McDonald's" or a land owned by a few corporations; they worked hard, saved their money and started their own businesses. They love this country and are grateful and patriotic and there is nothing phony about their sentiment. And if you weren't so ignorant you would know that 75% of the jobs in America are in small and medium sized businesses and 2/3rds of the wealth is tied up in small businesses and the jobs they create.

Simply equating a great, culturally and ethnically diverse society of nearly 300 million people like America, and all of the interesting people, and lives, and interests, and lifestyles, in this country to "McDonalds"; or a handful of big companies; is absurd, unrealistic, and silly.


Quite frankly, and this is no slam on the Bay area where you live(Brent has mentioned he lives near San Francisco as well), you need to get out and meet people in other parts of the country a little and see what America is really all about.

Spend a few years in the Deep South, or the Midwest, or the Rocky Mountain States, or the Northeast of the U.S. . You will find that the cynical, put-down America, simplistic view of the country that you have doesn't wash in most parts of America. This country has a little more substance than that.

This country has given more poor people from more ethnic and racial groups from around the world an oppurtunity to have a decent life where they can feed their kids, educate their kids, and pursue their goals and aspirations than anywhere else on earth. Why do you think so many immigrants have continually moved here for over 200 years and still do today?

My attitude is, that there are so many good people who would love to have the oppurtunity to move here that maybe those who are so down on America, who complain about it constantly, and who do little to constructively add or change the country for the better other than to put down the country, maybe you can find a better life in Iran or North Korea or Russia, a life more to your liking. I'm not being insincere in saying this.

I'm not saying anyone should be forced to leave the U.S. but if you are so bitter, unhappy, and cynical about this place and have an infinity with how people lived under Saddam, maybe you would be happy in ...say Iran! There are many Iranians who would love to live here, maybe we can make a swap and you can see what it is really like living in a place that really is poor, not like your neighborhood, and really doesn't have freedom, that lives under a dictator, and you would go to jail just for being critical of the government as you have done on this thread. And there is no environmental laws, and like Brent said, no Green Party.


I'm not saying love America or leave it, but the obvious question is; why stay somewhere that you don't like and are cynical about and who you blame(wrongly and immaturely) for the world's problems? If I was even a little bit as cynical about America as you are, I certainly would be happy to leave and find somewhere I liked better! That's a no-brainer. Why stay somewhere that you don't really respect or like? I certainly wouldn't.


But I do appreciate the U.S., I think we are a great country that can get even better. Constructive criticism is fine but your attitude about America is extremely narrow and isn't what most people in this country are about.

By the way, I hope you know you Green Party folks that voted for Nader, got Bush elected.


Vice President Gore(whom I voted for) would have easily won the Electoral College, the whole Florida voting fiasco would have been irrelevant, if Nader had not run for the Green Party. It is estimated by voter surveys that better than 2/3rds of Nader voters would have voted for Gore, less than one third for Bush. What gave the Bush the election was not so much the Supreme Court decision on the Florida recount situation, which was questionable, but the Nader voters.


That is why I find it ironic that you complain so bitterly about Bush and would praise the military if they got rid of him. You folks got him elected!!!
And is there a difference on environmental issues and poverty issues between Bush and Gore? Contrary to what Nader says, there is a difference. It does matter.

Gore, I'm certain, would have been much more aware of poverty and the environment and done more constructive things about it than the Bush administration has.

Like Brent said, keep voting for someone unelectable like the Green Party, and watch right- wing Republicans keep getting elected not only to the Presidency but also to the Congress and Statehouses. Be a self-righteous, hypercritical, cynical loser, see where it gets you or the country.