The Blessing To Be Born In The USA

click on graph to enlarge

 

The latest installments of the man on the street interviews are Watters' World in Boston the past two weeks.  Click here to see part 1 & here to see part 2.  John Stossel also recently asked "What's the Fed?" to people in NYC with similar bewildering responses – watch the first 30 seconds for a few examples.

 

Whether the interviewer is Jay Leno, John Stossel, or Jesse Watters these types of interviews always present some degree of humor before we realize the seriousness of the ignorance being displayed by our fellow citizens.

 

In this latest Watters' World edition only one third could identify Nancy Pelosi or John Boehner from their photos, only 1 in 14 recognized Ted Cruz, 2 in 14 could identify Harry Reid & when prompted with the clue "Harry" one thought they were looking @ a photo of President Truman.  One girl thought Joe Biden was the "speaker of the state." 

 

Funny for a minute but then oh so sad.  See above graph.

 

I do believe that these interviews make some of the interviewees aware that they really don't know what they should know about what is going on around them & to them – this awareness may not last long enough for them to do something about it but they know when interviewed @ least based on embarrassing body language & defensive laughter. 

 

When the preponderance of people wander through their life with no thought of the value of the liberty they have that lets them wander free as a bird while exhibiting birdbrain responses to elementary school civic matters it is just a matter of time before a despot takes that liberty from them – & the rest of us. 

 

Do these people take for granted that the whole world is like the America they live in – people free to be as ignorant as they really know they are with no consequences?  Do they ever wonder if they have contributed to our society that allows such freedoms – all they have is the blessing of being born in America?  What if they had been born in North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Russia, China, Syria, Lebanon or Israel showered with rocket attacks?  Do they ever think of our military & what part they play in their freedom?  Do women & homosexuals ever think what it would be like to be born in Iran?  If they did they would kiss the ground within America's borders & do everything they could to support our country.

 

To think these people are capable of asking such questions is imagining a lot - so far they were just fortunate to be born in America & have only shown embarrassing body language.

 

Now I can tie a valuable lesson to these man on the street interviews with statistics Google has provided me for about a year & a half detailing the daily readership of this blog.  Other than one day about two weeks ago the USA has always had the largest readership except for a few nights several months ago when China was on top.  I notice that China's readership rises & falls in direct proportion to news stories I read about clamp downs in China.

 

The one day exception two weeks ago pertains to Ukraine, which is consistently in second place in readership behind the USA since the statistics became available.  Ukraine topped the readership list for one day.  As many of you know Ukraine is in the middle of a move either toward freedom joining the EU or a move back to being under the Russian thumb.

 

Ukraine's former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has been a practicing economist & leader of a series of huge freedom protests & political events known as the Orange Revolution.  Tymoshenko labors for Ukraine's integration into the European Union, believes only citizens of Ukraine have the right to private ownership of land in Ukraine, strongly opposes membership of Ukraine in the Customs Union with Russia, Belarus & Kazakhstan, supports eradication of post-Soviet corrupt clans in Ukraine, fights for justice for ordinary citizens of Ukraine, & asked an American FairTax expert for a briefing on the FairTax. 

 

In October 2011 Tymoshenko was jailed in a politically motivated act that resembles the jailing of Russia's Mikhail Khodorkovsky – a multibillionaire & richest man in Russia when he was jailed almost nine years ago.  What does wealth mean without the rule of law?

 

Ukraine has a long way to go (currently considered to be in a demographic crisis with a high death rate & low birth rate magnified by health problems such as high blood pressure, overweight & obese people, too many smokers, & high incidence of HIV/AIDS) as did America in 1776.  I see Ukraine & America on opposite ends of the love of liberty poles – Ukraine is in the courage to liberty stage of forming their democracy (republic) & America is just about to leave the apathy to dependence stage descending into the final stage - dependence back into bondage. 

 

The man on the street interviews are indicative of how a society loses liberty when the people lose the bedrock foundation of civic responsibility.

 

Ukraine is striving for the liberty America no longer appreciates & is giving away – no, make that throwing away.