America isn’t what it used to be. With the current debt crisis, our troops and resources spread thin over the globe and our economy in shambles — unemployment rates soaring, property values plummeting, the widening margin between the middle and upper-classes — it’s hard to find something to be proud of these days.
For the past half century, Americans have felt secure in the top slot, but are we beginning to slip behind the rest of the world’s major superpowers?
“We had a quality of life that had never been seen on the planet before. But now, we are destroyed economically with an incapacitated government, we have worthless suburbs with no one to live in them except an army of homeless citizens who can’t afford to,” said Dr. Patrick Grzanka, sociologist and lecturer at Barrett, the Honors College.
“We have a bunch of people doing things they don’t want to do — suffering emotionally, overworked and underpaid — and the international sentiment is that the U.S. led a war into the Middle East and caused more damage than good. The end of unquestionable American dominance has arrived.”
For college students, the road ahead looks bleak. This generation, as it gears up to take the reins of America, severely lacks the privileges and good fortunes of its predecessors.
Gone is the promise of a decent entry-level position after graduation, cheap real estate for upstart families and the sweetness of life as an American citizen, of life on top.
If nothing else, the emergence of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement, demanding the end of government corruption and influence by big business and the wealthiest 1 percent, is indicative of Americans’ desperation for the immediate change and betterment of a nation clearly sick.
And instead of being met with careful listeners from Capitol Hill, they’ve been met with tear gas and police brutality from the New York Police Department.
“The overwhelming majority of the U.S. population is unaware of the vast wealth at hand. An entire generation of unprecedented wealth creation has been concealed from 99 percent of the population for over 35 years,” reported David DeGraw of AlterNet, the award-winning news magazine.
“We now live in a neo-feudal society. In comparison to the wealthiest one-tenth of one percent of the population, who are sitting on top of tens of trillions of dollars in wealth, we are essentially propagandized peasants.”
All is not lost, however. The famous American spirit persists in those unwilling to go down without a fight, as it has since the inception of our nation.
Our government is by, of and for the people, and as long as Americans maintain their pride and resilience, continuing to work and organize, there will be a hope for a brighter tomorrow.
“One thing that the world has always admired us for is our drive and willingness to work to achieve better means,” said Grzanka.
Despite the dark clouds looming over America’s future, many college students remain optimistic. “I traveled all over Europe this past summer,” junior management major Austin Rickert said. “I went to Russia, Finland, Poland, Germany — all incredibly beautiful places with amazing cultures — but they just weren’t America. We still have so many liberties that other countries simply don’t.”
Our right to freedom of speech, for one thing, remains more intact and unrestrained than anywhere else in the world.
We still have a lot to be grateful for, and we’re still the best.
Reach the columnist at jwadler@asu.edu
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