There is an expression: “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.” And there is another one: “Shoot at nothing, and you will certainly hit it.” To me, these two expressions characterize where America finds herself today. We are like the child with everything possible going for himself, but won’t focus, won’t apply himself. So what will he achieve?
When I was in the 10th grade, our biology teacher told the class that two students had passed through the doors of the high school with similar IQs to that of Einstein. But, he added, you will never hear about them, because neither of them applied themselves. Unfortunately, that is the state of America today. We are so caught up in our divisions that that is all we think about and all we talk about.
There are roughly 5 million jobs unfilled in America today, a number of them with starting pay in the $100,000 range. Foreigners apply in such great numbers for visas to enter the country to take these positions that the annual visa limit is reached almost instantly.
The sad part is we have a similar 5 million people out of work in our country. So what is the disconnect? It is partly education, and it is partly want of drive, of ambition.
One of the most unfortunate factors contributing to our untapped potential is the waste of many of our youth, in particular in the inner-city. Instead of focusing their lives on gaining the education necessary to unleash all the potential America has to offer, they fritter away their lives in crime, drugs, and experience early deaths.
How did it get this way? Speaking to the inner-city, where traditional employment was in a factory, the factories closed, the government stepped in with social welfare payments. But idleness doesn’t build character nor ambition. Add to this, many schools have remained second to third rate. Our society has done a poor job of educating many of them for employment in America.
How do we put this behind us and regain our forward focus? I was optimistic that the election of Barack Obama would help raise the confidence of the blacks with low self-esteem, that the election of a black man by the American people would demonstrate to them that if they apply themselves, that they can also achieve their dreams. If there is a dividend from his election, perhaps we’ll see it over time.
All the above leads me to my thesis: We in America must take our nation to the next higher level. Reason one, things which are not growing are atrophying. Reason two; China intends to overtake us in 20 years. If they were a friendly neighbor like democratic Canada, that would be one thing; they are not. China’s new leader-for-life Xi Jinping is increasingly belligerent toward us, toward our Asian allies, and our allies around the world. He is no friend of democracy and rules his nation with an increasingly iron hand. History has taught us that autocrats can be counted on to threaten world peace.
What is America’s goal? Since our beginning, it has always been: Justice, Peace, Security, Prosperity, and Liberty, for us and our Posterity.
America has everything going for it, but our current breakdown demonstrates that we can come unglued – to our potential peril. It’s time to stop allowing the fringe on the left and right to dictate the conversation, and for those in the middle to restart our traditional American dialog.
