It's time we got our own Country together for Human Rights before we Invade Anyone Else!

[KoKo]

America is SICK. We have lost rights we never could have conceived we'd lose because of our Invasions. Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq (twice).

How much longer will we tolerate these "THINK TANKS" telling us what the hell we should do to spread "Feedom and Democracy" when we are losing it here at home!

We bring in Mexican workers to build our Shopping Centers and McMansions and be Service Workers for slave wages so that we can "feel" we Americans are living the "GOOD LIFE" as we "eat out" on our "mortgages."

We wear clothing and shoes and use electronic equipment and cars imported from CHINA and JAPAN. Our NATIONAL DEBT is OWNED by the Chinese, Japanese and other "off shore sources" and we manufacture very little that would sustain us in an International Crisis here in the US.

BUT...WE are supposed to TELL OTHER COUNTRIES...how they should deal with HUMAN RIGHTS/CIVIL RIGHTS/RIGHTS FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN?

Until WE get our own act together ...HOW CAN WE PRETEND to be Moral Arbitrators for the rest of the World?

How can we? Isn't there some MEGA HYPOCRACY, here? :shrug:

[whistle]

1. For sure

:kick:

[tblue]

2. What I don't understand is how human rights went out of style in the US

Why peace is not even an option, and war protesters are made fun of

How torture became something Americans justify, even glorify

Why most Americans DON'T REALLY CARE when or why or how many soldiers die

How Americans can belittle and dishonor true patriot heroes like John Kerry, Jack Murtha, Max Cleland, and the signers of that plea for withdrawal from Iraq

Up is down, right is wrong, war is peace. These are symptoms of something very sinister and twisted. I agree with you, this country is SICK. We are on the wrong track in almost every possible way.

And yet we STILL brag about how America is so superior, has the moral high ground, is the envy of the world because we are 'free.' NONE of that is true anymore.

What the hell happened to my country???????

[Rex]

3. You answered your own question, because we pretend.

We pretend to be the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. We pretend to be the world police force. We pretend the stockmarket is an indicator of middle class wealth. We pretend at a lot of things.

Someday, someone, somewhere will snap their fingers and we will have to stop pretending and live in the real world again.

[KoKo]

4. Yes...our "illusions of grandeur' will kill us in the end. For so long

we all believed we were the best and brightest of the WORLD. Our Constitution was STRONG...and we could feel good about how we SAVED the WORLD in WWII. We are now fading Actors..getting the "B-Parts" and fading Imperialists, having lost so many "invasions" we've launched that's sold away our blood and treasure.

We don't manufacture anything of value here in the USA anymore. What if one of our "producer/manufacterer/suppliers" PULLS THE PLUG ON US?

What would we do?

[Rex]

5. I dunno, all I can say is that I'm right along side you in all this.

I shake my head in frustration over it too. Every year, I've watched our federal infrastructure fall apart a little more. Why? Why now?

What happen to Made in America? :(

[KoKo]

6. One of my relatives inspects our Nuclear Plants Cooling Towers. He's

an Engineer who works consulting with his Dad who has experience from the earliest Nuclear Plants in the US.

He crawls in and out of the "cooling towers" all over America and the World because he and his Dad are the great "Fix It's" for Parts when all else fails.

We just touched base this weekend and he told me that CHINA is selling us "tubes" for our Nuclear plants that have problems. We send them our recycled goods, metals and the rest and what they sell back to us doesn't meet the standards we used to have for our Nuclear Plants. He says that it's cheaper for us to send our recycled garbage to them and they rework it and send it back to us...but that the American Manufacturers they used to work with could deliver the guage and strength they needed to tweak our aging Nuke Plants. He doesn't have much faith in the new "cheap parts from China that are recycled from our old stuff" because they just aren't able to get what works in these old plants.

He and his Dad are getting lots of work consulting for the "after jobs" to fix what isn't working but he's fearful for America going forward because he worries for his kids...thinking that what we are "importing" isn't to the standards we need. We can make it work for a
few years...or in an "emergency fix" situation...but losing our "small parts manufacturers" who were close to the business and able to work with American needs is something that will cost our SAFTY down the road pretty soon.

It's kind of depressing that we just don't make any parts or anything here in America anymore. And with NUCLEAR PLANTS...it's DOWNRIGHT SCARY!!!!

[Rex]

7. Dam that is scary!

I think what did it for me was the inablility of our military bases to pay workers for maintanance and upkeep. That and the huge failure over Katrina. America just seems like it is 'winging it' when it comes to big emergencies.

A huge problem is the trillions we waste on stuff that doesn't benefit people, just corporations and the few that run everything. They complain about insourcing and act as if outsourcing will be some miracle cure for globalization.