I miss the world where America was respected for its humanity...

[Peter Frank]

We used to be about brilliance. We used to be a beacon for all good things that are possible in the world. We used to win favor by genuinely recognizing world-wide concerns as our own.

I miss this America to my soul.

[NMMNG]

1. Indeed

Now we are only known for being imperialistic, torturing slime who will do whatever it takes to get our way, and little or nothing to help those in need (unless we can get something out of it).

[Peter Frank]

4. Thank you...

It's so hard to reconcile the America I've always loved with where we are in the world now.

It's even beyond the point of partisanship for me now. I don't care how we got here -- I just hate that we have.

[Ptah]

2. I have a dream

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up
and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold
these truths to be self-evident: that all men are
created equal." I have a dream that one day on the
red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and
the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit
down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a
dream that one day even the state of Mississippi,
a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice
and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of
freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children
will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged
by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.

http://www.hylandmadrid.com/en/books/en/books_dream.htm

[Elwood P Dowd]

3. We've bombed, invaded, and overthrown governments in over 50 countries

since World War II. We haven't been a "humane" country in my lifetime, and I'm 58.

[Peter Frank]

10. I'll be 55 in May...

...and I know what you're speaking of. I was 12 when JFK was killed. I also know that the OSS/CIA under Ike (Eisenhower) undermined banana republics for lobbyists sake.

However, there was a very special nature to JFK's call for Americans to give to America (rather than vise versa. It struck a chord nationally and moved the world in the process).

I firmly believe that America will ultimately reclaim it's previous world acclaim as the land of the free & the home of the brave.

Hold your nose next vote.

[acmejack]

25. I'm with you!

My illusions were shattered permanently, oh about, 1968! I have never recovered, and never will. We are evil, evil, evil. Maybe not us as a people, but we are all most certainly guilty of apathy, if nothing else, and our "leaders" are evil incarnate.

[acmejack]

24. Dupe!

Board is acting wierd this am! sorry

[The Whiskey Priest]

5. Was it ever so?

Or, was it only a charade, a complex lie? Personal experience does not validate humanity...or at least my concept of humanity...humanity does not breath the stink of napalm. Humanity does not include the ashen face your friend dying for a lie.

When did we have humanity. There was no humanity as Chaney, Goodwin and Schwerner were covered over with red Mississippi dirt. Was there humanity in the murder of Bobby, Martin and John? When did this country have the sensitivity required to qualify for humanity?

[ashling]

17. Has there ever been humanity

in the whole history of the human race?

[ashling]

18. There has been precious little humanity in the whole

history of the human race.

[ashling]

20. There has been precious little "humanity"

Personal experience does not validate humanity

but then, there has been precious little "humanity" in the whole history of the human race

[ashling]

21. There has been precious little "humanity"

Personal experience does not validate humanity

but then, there has been precious little "humanity" in the whole history of the human race

[ashling]

22. There has been precious little "humanity"

Personal experience does not validate humanity

but then, there has been precious little "humanity" in the whole history of the human race

[ashling]

23. There has been precious little "humanity"

Personal experience does not validate humanity

but then, there has been precious little "humanity" in the whole history of the human race

[The2ndWheel]

6. Huh?

America on Earth? This Earth? Maybe there's another planet called Earth that has an America like that one.

Recognizing world-wide concerns as our own? If by concerns you mean what they had for us to take, and by win favor you mean military force, and by genuinely you mean genuinely, then I agree.

[TheBaldyMan]

7. remember that millions of Americans marched against the Iraq war

while a handful marched in support, it may not have been given much coverage in the states but it was widely reported worldwide. The MSM in the US might be a pro-bush monoculture but that doesn't mean that you are alone or unnoticed. The rest of the world misses Bill Clinton as well.

[jobycom]

8. The world has always seen two Americas.

We've always been the America built on genocide, that exterminated the Native Americans in a fashion that Hitler consciously tried to imitate, that maintained slavery far too long, that attacked Spain in the 19th century based on a lie to begin our imperialism, that dropped nuclear weapons on populous cities, that invaded nations in Central and South America, that overthrew popular governments and democracies around the world to protect our economic status or to save our oil supply. The nation if McKinley and Reagan and the Bushes.

And we've been the America of Thomas Paine, the Declaration of Independence, the land of opportunity, the land of religious freedom and economic possibility, the land that naively wanted to spread liberty and democracy with the exuberance of children, the land first to open our coffers to help others during tragedies, the nation that spared no expense to make its people safer from natural disasters and plane crashes and anything else we could spend money on, the nation of invention and innovation.

Since Reagan we haven't been doing so well in that second category. Clinton was a breath of fresh air, but far too brief.

[LeahD]

12. Yes, always two Americas....

We were spoon-fed propaganda since we were children.....and those in power hoped/were confident we wouldn't notice what our government was really doing.
At age 58, the veil of illusion has lifted....the reality saddens me that America is not America.

[jobycom]

13. Many in power believe the propaganda, too

And at times we live up to it, or did at one time. It isn't all fiction. It isn't so much that our myths are all untrue, as that they only tell one side of the story, and the stories that would give a different picture are altered to fit the American mythology. Like every nation, our leaders have been ambitious and bloody, and our successes have come at the costs of many lives and many freedoms.

Another problem we face is that our ideals have been outdated. The idea that our capitalism and democracy are best for everyone are outdated. Capitalism was freedom itself coming out of a time of feudalism, but many parts of the world have moved beyond pure capitalism, and we don't get it yet. And democracy works in many places, but in many others it leads to mob rule and tyranny, or to civil war and complete lawlessness. We don't seem able to get past our cliches and myths enough to grasp that.

Maybe we're just done. Maybe we'll move into a better era. Maybe one day we'll live up to our ideals, when we've stopped brainwashing our citizens into believing we've always lived up to our ideals. Or maybe we are too far along the path of Rome to recover. I don't know. All I know is I have to keep working for what I see is right, and hoping people catch on. That's why I love DU--people here (most of them) already see it.

[buddysmellgood]

9. I miss the America I was raised to believe in, whether it ever existed or

not.

[upi402]

11. i know, the wind whistles through the canonball hole in my guts

where my love of country once was.

[libodem]

14. What you said.

Amen.

[Luminous Animal]

15. There never was such an "America"

And I assume by "America" you mean the USA.

The United States is only as "great" as each generation makes it.

[asteroid2003QQ47]

16. #8 Loquacity

"We've always been the America built on genocide, that exterminated the Native Americans in a fashion that Hitler consciously tried to imitate, that maintained slavery..." --jobycom

Throw in the rape of stolen natural resources, the ongoing genocide of Native Americans (no, they weren't totally exterminated) and you need have said no more, jobycom.

[B Calm]

19. The world use to look up to America as a bastion of truth. How

sad for America right now and how humiliating for us.

[asteroid2003QQ47]

26. Indigenous 1

That the UNKNOWING world used to look up to America as a bastion of truth might be a more accurate portrayal of history.

[porphyrian]

27. Then don't give it up.

If you've already conceded, then they've already beaten you.

[Peter Frank]

29. I've conceded nothing, and have not been beaten...

My original post is a reminder of what we used to be about, and can be again. America has always been bifurcated in terms of good and evil; but it simply sickens me that our government has hijacked the very best that America can be, and put in its place a dark, paranoid, aggressive vision.

[Toots]

28. America is a Conquering nation

It is in our blood. Whether it be the land or space or ocean or wall street or disease or people. We are the Conquerors, and when we run short of things here we search the world. We take we don't give....

[Peter Frank]

30. That's only half of the story... n/t