When December 7th rolls around each year we're reminded of the attack on Pearl Harbor, which occurred on this date 69 years ago. That event brought us into World War II with a vengeance and provided the opening sentence for a magnificent chapter in not only U.S. history but world history as well. The United States pulled together, sacrificed across the board and did more than anyone thought possible. Let me illustrate the power of our resolve. In the second half of 1940, gearing up for possible entry into WWII, we produced about 3,600 airplanes. By 1944 we were producing nearly 100,000 planes a year. The unified strength of the USA was a force that simply couldn't be matched if we were determined to master a challenge. In 70 years we've had a meteoric rise, but we're headed for a crash landing unless we change course.
We can't afford to sit on our laurels and assume that we'll always be on top because God likes us best. We earned our number one status with sacrifice and dedication not supernatural puppeteering, and we can and will fall hard from that lofty perch if we think that we don't still need to do what's hard. Unless you're willing to be part of the shared sacrifice that will accompany the hard choices facing us, don't bother puffing up your chest and preaching to me about the greatness of our "one nation under God", because right now we're also one nation undereducated, underemployed and underwater on our mortgages. Our peace of mind is under siege, anyone different from us is under suspicion and too many of us are under the delusion that the American way of doing anything is by definition better than what's being done elsewhere. This has fostered the erroneous and destructive belief that we can't learn a thing from others around the world; they should learn from us. Like so many heroes of the Greek tragedies, our fatal flaw could be hubris.
We can't afford to sit on our laurels and assume that we'll always be on top because God likes us best. We earned our number one status with sacrifice and dedication not supernatural puppeteering, and we can and will fall hard from that lofty perch if we think that we don't still need to do what's hard. Unless you're willing to be part of the shared sacrifice that will accompany the hard choices facing us, don't bother puffing up your chest and preaching to me about the greatness of our "one nation under God", because right now we're also one nation undereducated, underemployed and underwater on our mortgages. Our peace of mind is under siege, anyone different from us is under suspicion and too many of us are under the delusion that the American way of doing anything is by definition better than what's being done elsewhere. This has fostered the erroneous and destructive belief that we can't learn a thing from others around the world; they should learn from us. Like so many heroes of the Greek tragedies, our fatal flaw could be hubris.
We're increasingly perceived around the world as incapable of solving our problems. We used to be so adept at doing whatever it took to build a strong and prosperous society that the world could only watch in awe as the 20th Century became the American Century. At the moment, we're less like that impressive force on the global stage and more like a lumbering, bumbling oaf who can lift a ton but can't spell it. We need to take a brutally honest inventory of our shortcomings and somehow find the discipline to right the ship even though it will involve some pain and, dare I say, cooperation. Otherwise, the United States is doomed to become an effete has-been like a character from Bruce Springsteen's "Glory Days" who lives in the past, basking in the memory of bygone greatness.
We used to rank #1 in college graduation rates; we now rank 12th, and we rank 20th in high school graduation. If we combine that with the fact that we've outsourced so many unskilled and semi-skilled jobs, the picture becomes even more disturbing. If we're not educating our workforce as well as the rest of the industrial or post-industrial nations and we've taken the suitable jobs for the less educated and moved them overseas, I'm not sure how we wake from our current economic nightmare. It certainly seems that right now we're eating our seed corn. The problem of today's overconsumption imperiling our future became disturbingly clear as we watched the wrangling over tax cuts and spending even in the face of ballooning debt. Right now we completely lack the will to be responsible grownups who make the hard choices and sacrifice the way people did 70 years ago when we were en route to unparalleled greatness. I'll explore taxes, spending, politicians and the electorate in another post. For now I'll simply say that like the craven attack on Pearl Harbor 69 years ago today, our greedy, selfish and childish refusal to act in good faith and make sacrifices should also live in infamy.
