China is carefully positioning its currency to topple the dollar, Time Magazine has a lead story on the US decline and so it must be true – we’re in decline. Are we now in a position to be able to say to the world “you won’t have the US to kick around anymore”?
Funny thing. We and the rest of the world have been slow to catch on to our oft-documented decline. In Libya, rebels are crying out for us to enforce a no-fly zone. You don’t see freedom fighters anywhere in the world clamoring for Russia or China to step in and help them in their hour of need.
If we are truly in decline, we know that we did not put ourselves here. Dishonest bankers and Wall Street financiers together with freewheeling and free-spending politicos took us a good part of the way along with others of their ilk who thought it was perfectly alright to gouge the hard working American people.
We were so very trusting. The world will not soon again see a people so trusting of their government, of their neighbors of themselves. We are still trusting but with a more fully developed sense of self preservation and a penchant for questioning and if that does not work, a knack for demonstrating.
But we and our land in all of its beauty are still here. The America I saw today on my way south past Nunda, New York to a pancake place open only 2 months of the year was reassuring. Under blue skies and a late winter sun, there in a field was a sign – a huge bald eagle wheeling and soaring and showing his great power with grace. He landed on a branch to sit and look over at us stopped, looking at him.
He, like this country, was once on the brink of extinction but care and determination and love for this beautiful thing made us work together to bring him back. There was our nation’s symbol in the skies over us today sending down this message of hope for our own future.
Bob Mack
March 3, 2011
Evening, SH. Time Magazine is the acknowledged expert on declining fortunes. But the crux of the story (by Fareed Zakaria, author of The Post-American World) is this paragraph:
What we see today is an American economy that has boomed because of policies and developments of the 1950s and ’60s: the interstate-highway system, massive funding for science and technology, a public-education system that was the envy of the world and generous immigration policies. Look at some underlying measures today, and you will wonder about the future.
Zakaria supports, in essence, more government spending, more money for teachers unions, and open borders. Obamunism. No surprise there–from Wikipedia: “he supported Barack Obama during the 2008 Democratic primary campaign and also for president. In January 2009 Forbes referred to Zakaria as one of the 25 most influential liberals in the American media.” I would argue that the very policies Zakaria supports are the ones responsible for the ‘American decline’ which he laments.
samhenry
March 4, 2011
Absolutely. This is why I wrote the article. I follow who Zakaria talks with Sundays. I always watch the channels with which I disagree. al Jazerrah is less prejudiced than CNN and CNN is junk news.
DarcsFalcon
March 4, 2011
The eagle has spoken. 🙂
Love your take on this Sam. I love the imagery of the soaring eagle, thriving and strong in a world where it was once nearly gone.
I agree with the bird. 😉
samhenry
March 4, 2011
Sincere thanks my fine feathered friend. It was almost a religious experience. This will always be a special country/place.
roxannadanna
March 4, 2011
Very nicely written, SH. Great imagery, too.
samhenry
March 4, 2011
Thanks, Roxy. Wonderful things grounded in the real produce the most beneficial lessons IMO. It was like seeing an angel with news in the sky.