The Greatest Country That Never Was

My entire life I’ve been bombarded by the sentiment that America is the greatest country in the world. This belief is absolutely everywhere; in fact I’m sure many of you reading this in America suffer from this collective hallucination. This idea of American exceptionalism has completely permeated every facet of our culture. Our musicians make countless songs praising America’s sheer awesomeness, our movies nearly always paint us as the “good guys”, even our media (that can’t agree on anything else) perpetuate this delusion in nearly every broadcast, and our system of education wholesale drives this false idea into the minds of our youth. To be a big name in American politics now you have to be star spangled stupid because in many parts of the country even hinting at the idea that America is in some way not the best is enough to get you voted out in your next primary or general election. There are plenty of reasons to be proud of America and to be an American, but we have passed the point of reasonable pride and entered an era of self-destructive delusion. We are to the point now where our collective belief in America’s greatness is directly undermining the facets of our culture that made us proud in the first place. The truth of the matter is that America has far less to be proud about than it does to be ashamed of.

Now if you’re the kind of person who thinks America can do no wrong strap in, this is going to be a rocky ride. But don’t fear, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

America has at the same time the highest rate of obesity in the entire world and the largest incidence of hunger in the industrialized world, a dichotomy that can in no way be justified or defended. Our health costs are exponentially higher than the rest of the industrial world driving millions into debt and bankruptcy due to a system in which corporate greed is not only allowed but promoted and people are dying because they can’t afford the treatment necessary to survive. Our defense budget is exponentially larger than that of any other nation. In regards to education we are being crushed in every major category by many countries around the world. In the past 30 years, starting with Reagan’s policy of deregulation, the gap between the rich and poor has exploded while the middle class has shrunk and continues to shrink. This country that was built on the backs of immigrants, populated by immigrants, and made a super power by immigrants has been injected with a reprehensible level of anti immigrant sentiment that cannot be put into words. We idolize ignorance and stupidity in our pop culture while at the same time marginalizing intelligence. Our economic and tax policies allow corporations to outsource jobs while at the same time paying little to NO taxes at all. We have by far the highest number of incarcerated citizens per capita than anywhere in the world, a disproportionate number of which are non whites, and oh yea we run a for profit system of prisons in this country so people are making millions of dollars a year by taking the freedom of others (that’s slavery people, pure and simple). Our nations infrastructure is literally crumbling around us; bridges are collapsing, watermains are bursting, oil pipelines leaking, roads are crumbling, and the problems are only getting more numerous and worse. We are denying climate change and our role in it even as the incidence of natural disasters and their severity increase yearly so that a few rich people can continue to get richer off of our addiction to oil despite already having the technology to move off of fossil fuels. Higher education is becoming impossible for many, myself included, because unless you're born well off you are being priced out by the ridiculous price of tuition and the crushing rates for student loans. We send thousands of our bravest men and women off to fight in wars and when they return battered, beaten, and in far too many cases broken we abandon them (The people of this country constantly act like we care for the well being of our warriors but the truth is we refuse to get off our asses and do anything for them. The department of veteran's affairs is a god damn joke and every last one of us should be ashamed of how we treat our warriors. The pervasive hypocrisy in our society in regards to our attitudes towards our soldiers is absolutely fucking disgusting). And there are countless more examples of truly deplorable behaviors in America that I’m not going to go into right now because to be perfectly candid the sheer number of things I’ve been able to put I this list in just 10 minutes is making me very, very angry.

               Up until now this has been an America bashing piece and there is a very good reason for that: We as a country need to admit that we have many problems, a great deal of which are systemic. We’ve held the cover over our eyes for far too long while our many problems have gotten exponentially worse. America was truly great once, truly great. We sent men to the moon, we invested in technologies that have built the world we live in today, we’ve cured and eradicated diseases, we’ve even put a computer in everyone’s pocket. You see the reason I’m writing this is because I know that America can be truly great again. We have all of the raw materials. The only thing we’re missing is the societal will to be the best, to be our best. This country has proven time and again that when we come together with a single goal in mind we can do anything, limited only by the laws of physics and our own imaginations. I believe America can be great again and more than anything I want America to attain that greatness because all I feel now is shame in my country. Older generations look back on their lives and they feel pride in what their country has done. My generation looks back and we see a war in which there was no glory, no victory, only pain and wasted lives. We look back and we see how we’ve allowed corporations to do whatever they want while normal people have been given the heel. We see a people becoming further and further divided and it’s only getting worse. We look back and we feel lost because the America we were promised as children no longer exists, it was taken from us by the greed of our parents. I want to look back on my country with pride when I'm older. I want to be able to say my generation had a hand in curing the ills of this world and not that we were their greatest contributor. I want to be able to say we put human footprints on mars. This country is capable of so much; we have the potential to be a beacon that will guide the human race into an era of peace and prosperity the likes of which is yet unknown to our species. And the best part is that how we get there couldn't be any simpler....... we just have to decide to do it.

Living in a World of Shit

            Try to imagine, if you can, sleeping within mere feet of all of your neighbors excrement. Imagine getting your drinking water directly out of the open sewer that you, and everyone you know, uses as a toilet. Imagine bathing with this water, washing your clothing in this water, or cooking with this water. Now imagine your children having no other choice but to do the same. This tragedy is the reality for billions around the world.

For those of us living in the more fortunate parts of the world, it is often easy to forget that most people don’t have access to basic every day necessities that we couldn’t imagine going without. To the credit of the many activists working tirelessly around the world some of these issues have become part of our society’s consciousness. Many now know of millions of annual deaths caused by rampant starvation and lack of access to clean water. There is one issue, equal in its scope of devastation that has been left aside. Currently up to 2.6 BILLION people do not have access to a sanitary bathroom; 1.5 billion don’t have access to a toilet at all. That is more than 1/3 of the world without access to proper facilities. I understand why this issue has yet to come to the world’s attention. I mean, who wants to talk about going to the bathroom? It’s an incredibly uncomfortable concept, so much so that many of the people who have this problem don’t want to talk about it either. Despite the rather uncomfortable nature of the subject matter the time has come for us to have a global conversation and come up with solutions to this dire issue.

 

            It’s easy to want to push this issue aside; there are plenty of others that deserve attention and resources. The fact however, is that the death toll due to this issue is astoundingly high. Over 700,000 children per year die directly because their communities lack access to sanitary facilities. Millions more die because of the combination of a lack of facilities and another cause such as lack of access to fresh water. By not having access to proper facilities people are forced to come into contact with their own and many other people’s feces. A small amount of feces can contain millions of viruses and bacteria as well as thousands of parasites, any one of which finding its way into a person could result in death. The most common illness people get because of a lack of facilities is diarrhea. To those of us that are fortunate enough to live with a toilet in our own home this isn’t such a big deal, but to millions of children, in the last few years alone, diarrhea is a death sentence.

In the capital of India, New Delhi, many of its citizens don’t have access to a toilet so they use the river that runs through the heart of the city. This major river, the Yamuna, has become so polluted with shit that the water has turned ink black and you can visibly see methane bubbling out of the river. 

 

       The scale of this global tragedy is unacceptable. We have everything we need to begin solving this crisis right now. We don’t have to invent new technologies; the only obstacles are finances and political will. Most of us don’t have the finances to make a difference but many of us are in a position to petition our political leaders to make an impactful difference. So wherever you are in the world speak out; talk to your friends, family, and tell whomever represents you in government that this issue is important to you. Tell them that you care for the 2.5 billion people who suffer through this every day. Tell them that you believe that our species is better than this, that we’re capable of so much more, and solving this basic human need should be a top priority.

 A woman getting drinking water from an open sewer