Day 57

March 16th

It occurred to me, just right now actually, that America really gets under my skin; grinds my gears, busts my birches, if you will. America is allegedly one of the richest countries in the world. They have the second highest average income and the largest economy by far. We are supposedly this great nation, a country whose freedom and liberty make it a country set upon a hill. Yet are we really a country set upon a hill?

No.

Despite all this money, all these natural resources, all this opportunity we still let our people live in poverty, we still let genocide rage in Africa, and are the number one contributer to what might just end life "as we know it" on earth: climate change. We lack the audacity and the determination to take on these struggles and instead only make excuses. Sure these problems are complex, very complex. But they are not intractable by any means. There are solutions to climate change, there are solutions to the education system, there are solutions these problems, but they just require monumental efforts on the parts of the United States. Okay, I shouldn't oversimplify these issues by saying if we just try harder we can solve all the worlds problems. There are a lot of people out there putting all their body and soul into these problems and I don't want to say that the only problem is a lack of caring. This is indeed far from the truth. But we do need to stop making excuses for not dealing with these problems.

Primarily, the Global climate change problem. I have remarked earlier that the Kyoto Accord would do nothing to remedy the global warming problem because it doesn't take into account the developing world. However, how do we expect the developing world to get behind the green movement when the country with the largest economy in the world doesn't want to take a stance because of the economy of America is too fragile. Too Fragile, I ask, come to Egypt and I will show you fragile. Okay, maybe I not mad at America per se, but I am mad at the Bush administration. Seriously, worst president ever in my mind. Okay, maybe not the worst, he does have some redeeming qualities but wow did he screw up big on a number of things. No matter what happens in 2008, at least he will be gone.