The Trouble With America

If you have been reading along here at all, you know that I have been worrying about every country EXCEPT the grand old U S of A.  I just came across a really fine article on the United States that I have to share with someone.  Why not you!?

I have this little e-magazine thing on my iPod called Zite - it monitors what I actually read, and it offers up things that I might be interested in.  It works!  This article popped up to the top today.
America: The Best Country in the World at Being Last -- How Can We Change That?
http://www.alternet.org/story/154367/ 

Generally, I try to read both sides of issues, so it would not bother me if this was conservative or liberal - but it turns out to be NEITHER.  I could not find any bias in it, other than being incredibly optimistic.  The author correctly describes some of the major things wrong with this country where I live.  (Since spending time in Central America, I do NOT refer to our nation as America.  We are one part of North America, thank you very much.)  After a masterful description of these problems, he then presents an amazingly hopeful forecast of how we can overcome this, and continue to be the greatest nation on the planet. Here's a brief quote to whet your interest:

"In the end it all comes down to the American people and the strong possibility that we still have it in us to use our freedom and our democracy in powerful ways to create something fine, a reborn America, for our children and grandchildren. We can realize a new American Dream if enough of us join together in the fight for it. This new dream envisions an America where the pursuit of happiness is sought not in more getting and spending, but in the growth of human solidarity, real democracy, and devotion to the public good; where the average American is empowered to achieve his or her human potential; where the benefits of economic activity are widely and equitably shared; where the environment is sustained for current and future generations; and where the virtues of simple living, community self-reliance, good fellowship, and respect for nature predominate. These American traditions may not prevail today, but they are not dead. They await us, and indeed they are today being awakened across this great land. New ways of living and working, sharing and caring are emerging across America. They beckon us with a new American Dream, one rebuilt from the best of the old, drawing on the best of who we were and are and can be."

I found that stirring and hopeful.  I hope it works out!  And I hope it comes soon enough that I can live to see it!  How can I help?

This is actually the first of two articles.  I await the second one.  It is also a preview of a book -
America the Possible: Roadmap to a New Economy, by James Gustave Speth.  He seems to be a lawyer, but don't hold that against him. Some of my best friends  . . . .

What do you think?