WHAT's Good About The United States & Canada?

[Keith_Hixson]

I wanted to start this thread with the idea that much too often we complain, bitch, gripe, and express our greed (union vs management). Yet, I believe there is much more good in American than evil. With that in mind lets not complain, bitch, gripe or express any forms greed (I'm taxed too much, or management doesn't pay well, etc.) on this thread.

I spent a few weeks in West Africa visiting an old friend. I was briefed on this I couldn't and could do. 1. I couldn't talk to a Muslim about God 2. I could not say anything negative in public about the government 3. I could not complain at any road blocks about this being a police state 4. I could not speak about the poor treatment of women in public - and the list went on . . . . .

My first thought was: this isn't America. Talking to other Americans on the Plane Ride back to New York we were so glad to be living in a society were freedom of speech really does exist. So many of the complaints posted in the political debate would have you in jail in any other country in the World. I am grateful that I live in America. I am grateful that I can worship freely without having any concerns about the police coming in and hauling me off to prison. I am grateful for an abundant food supply and the least of my worries is starvation.

These are just a few of my positive feeling towards my country. I hope we will all share a little on this thread.

Dr. Norman Vincent Peale use to quote this scripture:
"whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praise worthy, think on these things!" Philippians 4:8
Dr. Peale is the author of: "The Power of Positive Thinking"


Keith

[Seascamp]

Shades of gray??.

That was my impression of the former Soviet Union. After a three-month project in a place called Toylatti; on the Volga River, I traveled to Moscow via train and then caught a Finn Air flight to Helsinki. When the pilot announced we had passed out of Soviet air space, the plane erupted in cheers and applause and the drink trolley was out and rolling.
Except myself, all the rest of the passengers were European of one sort or another. Prior to that moment everyone was somber, said not a word and kept a very low profile at all times. It was like all of a sudden the movie went from flickery/scratchy black and white to wide screen Technicolor. I have never forgot that moment and all it stood for, we are truley blessed.

Scamp

[39mto39g]

I pay to much taxes, and Managment does not pay me well. And the line at the bathroom is to long.

Anytime you leave the United States you see first hand just why people want to get hear.
Ron

[Keith_Hixson]

Doesn't anyone have something good to say about the United States?

Keith

[Dragon Lady]

I can travel to Seattle to see my daughter and I don't need special permission to travel out of my home region. If I want to jump in my car and drive down to Arizona to visit my father I am free to do so.
I can call and talk to my kids anytime. I can buy what I want, when I want and where I want...provided I have the money to make that purchase.

I can eat chocolate cake for breakfast!
And I can sit on my back porch and watch the deer trying to grab the apple that is just a bit too high to reach.
I can vote, and I can drive my own car! As a woman that is a very big deal! I pulled a short TDY in Saudi once, and I HAD to ride in the back of the bus...The colonel had to drive and I HAD to sit in the back seat...it was their law. I was only a two striper at the time...how embarassing!
I served for 10 years as an aircraft mechanic!!! And I LOVED IT!

[Dragon Lady]

Besides, read the quote under my signature...he says to "cherish" the union. Okay so Mads was a Yankee I give you that...but he also wanted to see us succeed! Besides England, what other country has continued for so long with virtually the same basic laws and system of government? None that are in existance today.
Up until the early 1900s the middle east was primarily made up of groups of nomadic tribes. They were constantly at war with each other. Russia became the USSR then crumbled into several loosely held regions. Even China went through major changes.
We have some form of consistency. I for one am thankful for that...to a degree.

[HARDCORE]

KEITH -

So many of the complaints posted in the political debate would have you in jail in any other country in the World.

"Shhhh - Someone, somewhere, might get ideas!?" LOL

All kidding aside - "IN A DEMOCRACY, SILENCE IS NOT GOLDEN!"



VERITAS

[MORTARDUDE]

Keith :

There are many wonderful things about our country. You know what they are. But there is an enormous amount of room for improvement. As long as the powers that be have us divided in 2 camps fighting with each other ( dems vs repubs ) nothing will change. I wouldn't live anywhere else.

Larry

[philly]

It's refreshing to read a post such as this one. I am gratefully I was born an American. I have been able to pay for my eldest son to attend his first year of college. In other countries, one may need to be selected from a lottery before given the opportunity to attend college.

I am thankful I have refrigeration and heat.

I am glad I am able to drive an automobile from one side of the continent to the other without having to stop and show identification/papers at police/military checkpoints.

Sometimes, our hardships blind us from really appreciating what we truly have...our freedom.

[Seascamp]

Chocolate cake for breakfast, ha, what a flashback. My time in the former Soviet Union serves as kind of a benchmark for me as it clearly delineated the differences between peoples who were really free and those who are told they are free and happy or else.
One of the most interesting situations was the logistics system as everything was done by a quota of tonnage. Presumably anyone who didn?t meet the tonnage quota was on their way to the Lubianka or the Gulag.
Anyway, us westerners working on the project stayed in a guest house run by Intourist; a very thinly disguised branch of the KGB as it were. The meals served were always a surprise as it was a function of what came in via truck or rail. So for two weeks we had sturgeon and champaign, hic, for all meals. And I mean that was it. I was working on a chem. fertilizer plant and just across the way was a new petroleum refinery going up. One of the distinguishing features of a refinery are the cracking towers and it was known that the cracking towers; manufactured in the UK, had crossed into the USSR via rail but then simply went poof. I would guess that we?re taking about at least twenty flat bed rail cars to carry all the bits and pieces. The rumor at the time is that the load was dumped in favor of heavier cargo such as rock or cement. For all I know those towers are still rusting away on a siding or out in the steps somewhere.
But the CCCP had put money up front; the towers had vanished so the construction team just went on home to the UK. My project went to completion but in the closing days I told the alleged bosses that ammonia smell was a very bad sign so they had best shut down and have a look-see at what was happening. The syn gas compressor was a German brand that pushed anhydrous ammonia through the process and the German tech rep was going fritzo because central planning in Moscow refused to shut the plant down. Anhydrous ammonia is totally deadly stuff and it was obvious that the compressor labyrinth seals had been trashed out due to running the socks off the process to make some unrealistic tonnage quota and a self-fulfilling prophecy was about to occur, and it did. Sad how personal fear of retribution becomes suicidal, but that?s the way things work in a culture like that. Next I worked the tar-sands project in northeast Alberta Province, Canada, and there it was safety first and steady as she goes. We were a bit late in getting the coaker process going and everyone got ?officially? grim about that, but it worked, no one was injured so all was well that ended well. Big difference I?d say.

Scamp