Of course, you could say that we are thousands of years old (from the date the first human set foot on Alaskan soil) or 234 since the Declaration of Independence. But I prefer 1607, the day people started speaking English and living here (Jamestown). That’s when America as we know it started to take shape.
I am hopelessly patriotic. Not sure where that comes from, because I never set out to be that way. And my patriotism is not comparative. I don’t think in terms of “better” than other nations. Having traveled extensively, I can easily see why Italians and Ethiopians are also patriotic.
So, let’s talk about America for a few paragraphs, since we’ve taken another trip around the sun together. Some random thoughts:
1) Patriots can question America and point out faults. Family can do that.
2) Americans need to respect their political opponents more. I am so tired of conservatives and liberals bashing each other.
Conservatives who don’t think liberals are right about anything (and vice versa) lack perspective. I am a family-values free-market guy. But I actually listen to my political opponents, value them, and learn from them. Demonizing Bush or Obama (depending on your flavor) closes your mind. Keep it open.
3) The immigration issue has degenerated into sound bites and posturing. Where are the real solutions that would actually work?
Politicians stir up xenophobia in order to pander for votes, and then they present no real plans to solve the issue. The result is hypocrisy (let them in but say we won’t tolerate it).
Like him or hate him, the last one to present a real solution was W. And his own party shouted him down. Since then it’s been useless pundit-pulpiteering.
4) America needs to re-embrace having children.
Listen to people talk about having kids or being pregnant. Trust me, they will usually imply that children are a liability.
This, not politics, is at the heart of our abortion statistics. Children should be seen as a blessing, not a curse.
And economically, we aren’t having enough of them to pay for our retirement. And then we wonder why we need so many immigrants to keep the country running.
We think that having children will get in the way of our development, but all of us with children know that NOTHING develops and matures us like having them!
And children with more siblings tend to be healthier and have better social skills.
5) America needs to go on a diet.
This is the main problem behind our soaring health care costs. I struggle with it as everyone else does.
6) America needs a big project or a frontier.
We lack vision as a nation. Haven’t done anything cool together since Project Apollo.
7) America needs to embrace the Open Source revolution.
This will most affect education. Stacking kids in huge buildings and talking at them is no longer the best way to maximize learning. We need much smaller schools which encourage friendship building and teamwork. Children need to be evaluated for aptitudes and these skills need to be brought out in teams. We need to re-visit job skills (whatever happened to vo-tech schools?), apprenticeships, and stop implying that everyone needs to go to the university. Children should learn how they are wired up and be motivated to develop those gifts.
8. America needs to solve her energy problem.
The gulf oil spill is a painful reminder that, economically, environmentally, politically, and otherwise, running our national engine on gasoline and diesel is not sustainable for the rest of the century.
Which of you is going to be the new Edison? Time for major breakthroughs.
9) America needs to redesign her cities around people, not cars.
The way we have built suburban tract housing has isolated our children and created a sedentary generation. Most Americans now live in a setting where there is nothing meaningful to which we can walk. It’s all designed around cars.
After many years in tract-land, we moved into a real (old school) neighborhood 8 years ago. I can easily walk to: library, bank, drugstore, post office, UPS, the beach, schools, and 25 places to eat.
Is your neighborhood designed around human beings or cars?
10) America needs to embrace local food and urban gardening.
You don’t want to watch massive food factories at work, especially with animals.
11) Our children need to be given more social free time.
We are over-supervising and over-scheduling their lives. As a result, they are no longer developing leadership skills.
12) It’s time to revisit our spirituality.
American faith is potent and vital. Its taproot is in the slave songs of the cotton fields. It is empowerment-based and transformative.
Listen to gospel music on a regular basis. It’s one of America’s greatest cultural gifts to the world. And develop a live relationship with a live preacher. Having a “rabbi” and a faith community is deeply enriching. There is a little “indie” church near where you live that could use your presence. They are doing a lot of good–join them.
13) We need to withdraw our military from the Eastern Hemisphere. Our future is in teamwork with Canada and Latin America. All North Americans should learn some Spanish. All Latin Americans should learn some English. We need to build a 21st century railroad to South America. We need to send out brightest and best north and south, not east and west.
Our over-involvement with the Old World has caused nothing but trouble and heartache. Most all of our war casualties (since 1865) have soaked the battlefields of the Eastern Hemisphere with their blood, and we don’t have a ton to show for it. The founding fathers saw this ahead of time and warned us against “entangling alliances.” We are obsessed with virtually impossible blood feuds in the Middle East, which they are going to have to solve on their own, and we all saw how this bit us on 9-11. Badly.
We could easily protect the Western Hemisphere, with about half of our military budget. Dream a little. What if we sent all of our young adults on a one-year sojourn to Canada or Latin America (instead of straight to college) to work and learn and build contacts?
In the broadest sense, everyone in the New World is an American too.
All that being said, I love living in this country. I love being American. We can rise to prevail over all of these challenges. I feel blest every time I wake up here.
God bless you all and God bless the United States of America on her birthday.
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Please pass the link to this essay on to everyone you know. Thanks! Short version: http://wp.me/pGQxY-b0
David Housholder Essays 
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June 29, 2010 at 7:50 am
Wendy Housholder
Having lived here for 32 years now, I feel blessed to live here as well. And I agree with all of your points. If Americans realized what an amazing country they lived in, I think we would hear a lot less complaints. And if they think it’s flawed, I hope they will consider being a part of the solution, instead of just complaining….
June 29, 2010 at 8:25 am
john clark
I agree with just about every thing you have said here. I am a liberal but I do listen to the other side. The more complicated a society becomes the less efficient it is. The only way to tern it around is to increase disipline. This is a very unfortunate fact. The bigger and more complex an organization the more internal order it requires to maintain it self. An ability of the individuals involved to identify with the hole is what enables that disipline. A simple thing like not throwing trash out on the high way is a matter of believing that you are a pariticipant in the well fare of all of us. The form of neighborhood you mentioned is indeed a much beter way of living as it enables us to socialize in person and create bonds that allow us to act as a community. It such neighborhoods kids can develop social skills. The internet does not provide this. Our humanity is being undermined by the isolation of the individual in trems of real contact with others. We can share our intelect and our beliefs on the internet but are still isolated emotionally from one another. These days people can watch other people being slautered on TV with out shuttering over the thaught. They have no real emotional contact with the rest of humanity. This is very sad.We may as well be back at the areena in Rome watching the feeding of the Lions. Hand shakes hugs smiles and kisses , songs and games are the kind of things that actually bring human being together. When we celebrate the nations birthday we should not just watch the fire works we should gather with our neighbors to eat drink be merry and actually make physical contact, be it a slap on the back a hug or a dance. In times gone by thats what people did. We need to get back to being real, so we can teem up and do the big stuff that dreams are made of.
June 29, 2010 at 1:10 pm
John Hudson
Excellent litany of things we need to do as citizens, neighbors and individuals. I will ponder it, and as well I will share it with my wife. In the I-hate-to-be-a-buzzkill department, my elementary and high-school Va. history classes taught me that Jamestown was founded in 1607. It was a pretty miserable place for the settlers until 1619, what we were taught was the “Red Letter Year,” when the first slaves and the first English women arrived. After that, life was miserable only for the slaves (and continued to be for the Indians).
Nevertheless, as a Virginian I must thank you for dating America from the time of the first permanent English-speaking colony. After all, the writer of the Declaration of Independence was himself born in the Old Dominion. 🙂
June 29, 2010 at 1:18 pm
David Housholder
John–Thanks for the update. Jamestown is under-emphasized and Plymouth is over-emphasized. 1607 it is.
June 29, 2010 at 1:24 pm
John Hudson
I’ll throw in one more Jamestown 1619 fact, since it probably was the most important thing that year, and that was the establishment of the House of Burgesses, the first locally elected, self-governing body in the “New World.”
June 29, 2010 at 1:30 pm
David Housholder
What, exactly, is a “burgess,” and where did the word come from?
June 29, 2010 at 1:43 pm
John Hudson
No one ever asked me that, and I always just took the name uncritically. I could look on the internet, but I have a pretty good idea where it came from: I’d say that a “burgess” was a “townsman” or an elder, a representative of a borough (the English word for a district) or a burgh (the Scottish word), as from burg/berg for fortified town, etc. (The “g” is soft in “burgess,” FYI.)
June 30, 2010 at 4:03 pm
Luke Allison
#5: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/definitive-guide-to-the-primal-eating-plan/
Not a diet, a lifestyle not marred by “Conventional Wisdom”, which is not wise at all.
June 30, 2010 at 6:46 pm
Abby
All excellent ideas. Except, possibly number 13. I agree this is part of the history of the middle east forever. But there are really good people over there who need our help to live in peace. (Which will never be realized, only possibly controlled.)
My husband’s grandfather was a university professor in Damascus, Syria. A group of people approached Kaiser Wilhelm about their problem of persecution as Christians by Islamists. He told them either move or change religion. A hundred years ago, he and his wife moved to Michigan and started the first Eastern Orthodox church in their city. They were so faithful and committed to Jesus Christ. He became even more notable when the Bishop who ordained him was made a saint of the Orthodox church. His church thrives to this day.
My father-in-law’s parents were murdered by the Druse in Beirut, Lebanon. His father was an ambassador for the government of Lebanon. My father-in-law’s uncle, living in the United States, brought he and his brother and sister here and raised the children. My father-in-law was the oldest at 6 years old when this happened. He didn’t know his real birthday date, so at some point he chose the 4th of July to celebrate his birthday.
There is a strong Eastern Orthodox christian community in my city whose relatives came here to escape persecution. If we cave in, where do we go from here? There is good reason that, not only the United States, but the world should be mindful and strong to help protect good people everywhere.
Christians and Jews have the right to exist. And I do not believe that because we are taking on the terroists now that that is increasing their need to be what they are. We were not involved over there a 100 years ago when my relatives fled to the U.S. to practice their christian faith without fear of death.
June 30, 2010 at 7:16 pm
john clark
Many would say that human nature will always prevail and that man is doomed to repeat his mistakes. The mistake of thinking that war is a solution to anything. The mistake of thinking that there are more differences between us than similarities. The mistake of thinking that there is not enough to go around if we share what is here. The mistake of thinking that our contiousness can not be exspanded so as to allow us to identify with one another. I disagree. I believe that although human nature will not change human contiousness can change and that we can build a better more tollerent world civilization. The internet is the way to spred the word to the grass roots of every nation, that love of thy neighbor as thy self is possble and that peace is achievable if we will band together as people of the planet to prevent war. We can not go to war as nations if the people of all the nations do not allow it. All of us all about the face of the planet are brothers and systers. If we can not come to this awareness then we are truely dumed as a species. Those who would rule must serve us not themselves. If we allow them to serve themselves, we sentence our selves to death and distruction by what ever meens are available to those in charge.
July 1, 2010 at 5:10 am
Luke Allison
John,
The only logical way for what you’re talking about to happen (utopia) is if some perfect, absolutely spotless ruler were to set themself up and govern the nations based on one standard of morality.
I’m trying to think of a system of thought which features that particular idea….hmmmmmm…..
July 1, 2010 at 8:52 am
john clark
I was definetly not thinking in terms of a sigle leader but rather in terms of a body of elders. Those who have demonstrated wisdom and integrity in the past. Such people are not so hard to find. It is only difficult to place them in power as long as we let money rule this world. They say money talks and bull shit walks. This is true only if the power of the masses is controlled by the control of information.BNeing able to communicate directly insted of through government controlled entities gives us the freedom to learn directly about one another and enables us to see our similarities. This under mines the control of the few over the many. The enemy is always some fiction manufactured by those with special interests. They need the cooperation of the masses to achieve their goals. This cooperation is facilitated by the manipulation of information. Political candidates, sales men, advertising companies, all know how this works. The production of either feer or the hope of gratification are the tools by which such people rule the world. If people would realize that most of their feers are unfounded and that gratification is available to all who would cooperate and work towards common goals, the few would not be able to control the many. The many would control the many and the world would be a better place.I do not believe utopia is posible but a world with less conflict and more cooperation is possible with the aid of unbiassed mass communications. As an infant grows its sinapses hook up and coordination of the body is possible. My hope is that this infant civilization of ours will do the same via our latest technology.
July 4, 2010 at 5:21 pm
Mrs. Hume
3) The immigration issue has degenerated into sound bites and posturing. Where are the real solutions that would actually work?
Immigrants have to follow laws like everyone else.
Americans want real sovereignty and rule of law.
Just like we did in 1776 when our dearest founders risked their lives and livelihood to give us a government that would secure our God given rights.
Always worth a read in its entirety, The Declaration of Independence:
http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/
July 5, 2010 at 9:40 am
David Housholder
Please accept my friendly challenge to your uncritical premise.
It’s not that simple.
Sorry.
Bad laws and regulations prove that they are bad when they are massively ignored. Prohibition was one such law. My guess is that you always drive over the speed limit too–as does everyone else.
Massive non-conformity (as we have with immigration) is a sign that our immigration regulations (and we are over regulated everywhere else–why not here too?) aren’t working, socially or economically.
The answer (and you can read history) is never to crank up the heat on a law that is being ignored by millions. It is to ask the simple question: What is wrong with this regulation?
Also, things that are simply unenforceable are exactly that. Are you going to tell all of the kids at the local university to hand over their iPods because they downloaded bazillions of songs, illegally, and go to the back of the line and start buying LP’s? Of course not. If it’s unenforceable, and our current immigration law is simply that, then we have to modify the law.
It would take a HUGE chunk of the GNP of this country to create and patrol another iron curtain along the Mexican border. And we all know how well that worked the first time in Europe. The Great Wall of China was also useless. Our border is not enforceable like the locked door to a shop can be.
Bottom line: History shows us that people are going to go where they want to go. We need to manage it, not control it.