America! Land Of Pride And Plenty!

We should have a great deal of pride in this fantastic nation we have. Being a lawyer, I'm even proud of our judicial system, even with all the faults it has. The law and justice often make strange bedfellows, as the saying goes. Sometimes justice does not seem to prevail, and is instead slaughtered by rules and procedures. But it is still a better-than-average system.

To compare America with any other nation in the world, we have to give up an awful lot. We'd have to begin with our automobiles, because no other country enjoys the individual freedom of travel we have here. We'd have to give up over half our cars to compete with most nations. This wouldn't seem too bad, though, because we'd also have to give up about two-thirds of our streets and highways too - just to compete with other nations.

America only has about 6% of the world's population, and only occupies about 7% of the world's land surface, yet we have about 75% of the world's appliances, televisions, and other conveniences. One luxury we have, that many people in other parts of the world don't have, is the luxury of moving our residences. It is estimated the average America family moves about every seven years. In many parts of the world, two or three families share what we would call a single family residence. Think about the traffic jam in the bathroom!

We enjoy freedom in this country that isn't even understood by other people. We have a free enterprise system second to none in the world. In other nations, it's often pre-determined even where a person will work, and many other things that affect them. In America we tend to take for grated things that don't even exist in other parts of the world. And have you traveled recently, and have you looked for various choices in the supermarkets of other nations? The choices they have - if any - are extremely limited. We walk into the store and have 10 choices of anything we want. I remember standing behind two Brits in London one day who were ordering an ice cream. One said to the other: "I can't believe those bloody Americans with 32 choices of ice cream. I can't hardly decide between chocolate and vanilla."

Our nation truly is a land of pride and plenty.

Of course we have our problems. While I sing America's glories, I also see the problems that only begin with too much credit, overspending, and people who have not been taught to live within their means. "More is better" is the philosophy, and if we can't afford more, we'll beg, borrow or steal it. Our economy leads to untold stress and anxiety, which often results in divorce, foreclosure, collection agencies, garnished wages, and many other negative things.

Believe it or not, so much of the problems today result from a lack of education. I think our single greatest problem is our educational system. We all read how bad it is, and how Christian and Charter schools are usually so much better. A Bible verse says, "People are destroyed for lack of knowledge." This pretty well summarizes present day reality.

Corporate authorities are often shocked by how much LESS knowledge and wisdom graduating seniors have than the year before. Plus, they don't even know that they don't know.

Another Bible verse says people have "zeal... but not according to knowledge." A corporate exec recently was quoted as saying that most people his company hires have NEITHER zeal nor knowledge. Most potential employees can't seem to even define things like motivation, commitment, zeal, enthusiasm, or inspiration.

Before about 1890, the educational system in America was the best in the world. No other nation had a better, more productive system. And in this system, students learned the following:

(1) ABC's - reading, writing and arithmetic.

(2) MORAL VALUES - the current day Boy Scout creed was taken from our education system, where students were taught to be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, friendly, brave, clean and reverent.

(3) HOW TO SUCCEED - students were taught how to make our experimental, capitalistic, free enterprise system work. They were taught how to be business people and entrepreneurs.

After about 1890, all of this started changing. I'm sure you've heard the following maxim: "Don't try to fix what ain't broke." Well, certain officials in our nation decided to try to 'fix' our educational system, and they fixed it good. Between 1890 and about 1950, they took out two of the three aspects of our of our education: (2) the moral values, and (3) how to succeed. This just left us with the first: the ABC's - reading, writing and arithmetic.

Think about it. We don't learn how to succeed in business today. We're just taught the basics - and most of that isn't taught very well. Most graduates should take remedial reading courses just to get by in business. And most of them can't add 2 + 2 and get 4. It's really a sad state of affairs. And morals are the same way. Morals have not been taught now for over 50 years, and we see the results - in drugs, rapes, thefts, burglary, murder, sex, AIDS and other diseases, booze, rival gangs, drive by shootings, and the like. It is estimated today that 50% of our young people literally don't know the difference between right and wrong.

When everything is based on us personally - where we think we are on center stage and the center of attraction - this causes us to live self-condoning lives, while at the same time we develop a condemning attitude toward others. Until we learn to tackle our personal weaknesses head-on, we'll never be victors over them. We'll always be victims. This begins with our education system. And, if you know your America history, you know that in the beginning, education began at HOME... not in the classroom. Today we pay others to do our jobs for us, and many of them have not been educated to do the job that they should be doing. "Children live what they learn," and this starts with our teachers, leaders, corporate execs, and politicians.

In essence, what these series of articles are about is taking control over our lives in a positive, practical way, and becoming victors in life, not victims of life. These articles express how to live life in PASSION. These articles are not so much about America - but about AMERICANS, -- the backbone of America. There is no America without Americans. Thus, these articles are focused on strengthening Americans - you and me. And... if you are not an American... it doesn't really matter at all. People are people the world over. We may look a little different, and we may live in different environments. But we all have the same hearts,... the same minds,... the same desires.

In a word, these articles will helpfully show how to get the most out of the best you have to offer - in every single area of life. It's something that used to be taught in our schools, but it was done away with decades ago.