America's Greatness and the Future of America

 For 18 years, between 1988 and 2006, I lived in America. I've been to places large, places small and places midsize. I've been to cities and countryside; suburbs and uninhabited areas; places ranging in their ideology from far left to far right. I've come to the conclusion that America is the greatest country in the world. And as such, it is important to know what it is that made it that way.

One unquestionaboly is diversity. Diversity means that there are many places suitable for different people, and that the main secret to adjustment is being in an area that is appropriate to you and surrounded by people you would want to be around. For this reason freedom to roam is a human right, and freedom of association is a right granted by American Constitution. Freedom of association means, that if you live in the South, you should be able to associate with artists and intellectuals. Freedom of association means that, if you live in Midwest, you should be able to associate with scientists, poets or Buddhists. Freedom of association means that, if you live in Northeast, you you should be able to associate with a church. Freedom of association means that, if you live in California, you should be able to associate with Muslims. The more freedom of association and freedom to roam are encouraged and protected, the greater the adjustment of the population, the greater the happiness of the population, and the greater its gratitude and its patriotism.

But America is the greatest country in the world. And to maintain its greatness one must remember what made it that way. It was not, as some would claim, "traditional family values." These "values" existed in Europe and Middle East long before they existed in America, and most of those places were disaster zones for the bulk of the history that such values existed in them. Rather it is ingenuity, innovation and risk-taking; and innovation also means in matters of lifestyle. When the most successful man in the world - the President of the United States - was raised by a single mother, it is obvious that the nuclear family is not, as many would claim, the only functional way to raise children. Nobody is denying the people who want a nuclear family the right to have a nuclear family. The problem is that many of those who claim to speak for the nuclear family want to deny people the right to living any other way. And that is totalitarianism - totalitarianism that has no business existing in a free country.

So America is the greatest country in the world; and it is vital to know how it became so. There are many who want to return America to the way it was in the 19th century; but in 19th century England, not America, was the world's greatest country. America became the greatest country in the world in early 20th century, the time known as the Progressive Era - the time of great scientific, technological and entrepreneurial innovation. Also the time of progressive reforms. The labor unions that gave American workers humane working conditions and benefits. Women's rights that gave women the right to vote and the right to work. Environmental reforms that created the national parks. And, yes, the income tax that was used to fund such projects as Panama Canal; the creation of the world's most powerful military; universal education which made people employable outside the manual sector; and the world's greatest science. The science that is at the root of everything that is sold by business and without which both the businessman and the consumer would have very little of what they have.

But America is the greatest country in the world; and it is important to know who made it so. It is the scientists and the innovators in liberal Massachusetts and California that have created the bulk of what business sells. It is the computer industry, initiated in its present form by a hippie named Steven Jobs who wanted to make "the people's computer" and which is based in liberal San Francisco Bay Area, Washington State and Democratic-voting areas of Northern Virginia, with Democrats being the bulk of its management and work force, that was at the root of 1980s and 1990s prosperity. It is the manufacturing workers in Democratic-voting states like Michigan and Pennsylvania that provided the labor for creating America's industrial might. It is Democratic presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt that gave America its greatest military victories in the First and Second World Wars. It was government workers who built the Interstate and the Internet which vastly facilitated prosperity. Which means that America owes vastly to Democratic constituents, and the ongoing usurpations of this credit by Tea Party or conservative Republicans are a pack of lies.

So America is the greatest country in the world; and for it to continue being the same it is necessary that it stand true to the innovation, ingenuity and progress that made it so. Progress at this time means moving from inefficient, outdated, destructive technologies to better technologies - smarter technologies - technologies that will let people have everything they have now and much more with much fewer destructive effects. Clean energy technologies such as the Hydrogen Transmission Network will provide for the country's energy and water needs through a process that destroys nothing that can't be replaced and produces nothing harmful. It will be as good for the economy as it will be for the health of the planet. Oil, less of which will be wastefully burned, will be used instead to produce more high-end goods such as plastics, clothes and pharmaceuticals, resulting in far greater utility to the consumer and far more income to the oil industry.

Being the greatest country in the world, America is called upon to lead into the 21st century, and much will depend on the policies that it adopts. It is time that the lies of the Far Right be put to an end and real solutions be put into effect. It is innovation and ingenuity that is at the root of America's greatness and such must be applied now to create a livable future in which America remains the greatest country in the world.