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Scott Benson,
First things first. We all love the freedom that comes with our passports. America has earned much goodwill to allow ourselves to travel freely to many places. None of us disagree with the things that are still great about America, like the police forces and the Justice system. Although, don’t you think it is odd that the US has 5% of the world’s population and 25% of the world’s inmates – especially for supposedly the most “FREE” country in the world.
ECONOMICALLY – You keep pressing the issue of the great depression and I’m glad you are. The difference we face today is GLOBAL COMPETITION. As someone else pointed out, we used to be the biggest importer of raw materials and the biggest exporter of finished goods, and now we are the exact opposite. We have to pay our auto workers and a living wage of $40K per year, plus $15K for health insurance, that cannot compete. Some like to blame the unions for higher wages, but I guarantee you can not raise a family on $40K per year with the ever-increasing cost of energy, food, and other vital expenses.
Please read “The World is Flat” by Tom Friedman to see why globalization will not allow the bounce back like after the Great Depression. Further, the reason the USA recovered so quickly is because of the humanity exuded by F.D.R driving the country out of dispair. Unfortunately, we currently don’t have any leaders that are even close to that kind of character. F.D.R. also ordered immediate FULL SCALE investigations minutes after Pearl Harbor. And Bush fought a 911 investigation for over one year…that is beyond poor leadership..and borders on suspicious.
Jeff Hickcox
No they were there, like thousands of them they were touched by the death squads as well, but lets get back to who the death squads were? Just because she is now giving tours to embassy members doesnt mean she has party lines.
I think you are really mis guided and don’t want to face the facts of what really happend..
Oh well just keep blameing the U.S. for all of your problems.. but don’t cry if some day you need the U.S to fix your passport or somthing.
Funny, You mentioned needing the US to fix someone’s passport and maybe not getting that assistance–Do you mean that because someone doesn’t back up the political thoughts of a particular administration or many of them their gov’t shouldn’t work for them? Gee, and here I thought that the US government was supposed to by be “BY THE PEOPLE AND FOR THE PEOPLE” I guess I forgot that Chavez isn’t the only one trying to rewrite his country’s legacy….
Regarding El Salvador, of course people from all walks of life, economic status and political persuasions were hurt by the conflicts there as happens EVERYWHERE, but she had the ability to leave and live with dignity elsewhere. This embassy guide you mention sought out her personal safety from the mess caused by greedy, horrible men in El Salvador and the US, but when someone from the US is doing JUST that you become upset and deem them unfit to carry a passport????? As unfortunate as her circumstances could have been, she was not part of the oppressed, tortured, disappeared and killed of that nation because lunatics thought it should be run under an incredibly repressive regime and many of them were informed and educated under US guidelines. Have you walked thru the streets of San Salvador even now so many years after their civil war has ended? It doesn’t matter how much big business is there and how they have beautiful malls, the people’s psyche has been damaged after so much killing. What do you expect happens to humans when they kill another human for political differences over and over again? It doesn’t matter which side you’re on, that stuff will haunt you the rest of your days and in civil wars, the killing even happens within families, the bitterness of their dead follows them and I was informed that walking a 2 block span would definitely NOT be safe. When I was in my nice hotel, planning my seminars, there were businessmen coming in and out of that hotel, but they were incredibly well accompanied by BODYGUARDS! When you work for international agencies there, you get a sort of “combat pay” because it’s so unsafe there…I am eternally grateful Costa Rica has not had to suffer through this trauma and the US had not been formally (because you may get another response in the barrios/ghettos of large cities in the US) exposed to it on national soil since the Civil War until 9/11. I was in Jersey when those fighter jets were going over our heads, the towers came down and some of the toughest people in the US, New Yorkers, were devastated and tortured by their thoughts, fears and loss, I was here when some of the Muslim community rejoiced in the streets of Paterson over that dreadful day and also when I saw Sikhs and Muslims that had nothing to do with that incident be harassed and even be refused medical treatment at some doctor’s office–Watching people die around you, fearing for your loved ones and watching your children go off to war is a HORRIBLE thing anywhere and it does change you. The problem is that those that subscribe to the business first, people second mentality of the survival of the fittest bunch have the arrogance to think that this will never touch them or their loved ones—eventually this changes and history has proven this time and time again…I don’t blame every wrong on the US, I think that the national people involved in selling their souls for the almighty $ are just as despicable–only we say we stand for freedom and justice, and then help those monsters do horrible things and/or continue to stay in power until it no longer suits us–Ah, then they become bad, but before they were good–Can we say Bin Laden???
A government’s job is to represent (WORK FOR) its citizenry, but I believe that this goal has been clearly displaced and many, including the US, and they are WORKING FOR BIG BUSINESS. Just because it’s happening doesn’t make it legitimate–
According to Abraham Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address he said in 1863:
“– that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. “
People DO NOT NEED TO NOR SHOULD THEY EVER blindly follow government (unless your proposing communism or fascism) to be good citizens, because government is supposed to serve us and one that doesn’t certainly does not deserve our loyalties!!
Now, fight with the most famous words Abraham Lincoln ever spoke–they resound with impact in our minds and our hearts because that is how real goodness feels…imitation government excuses, rhetoric and lies sound hollow and wrong because they are….
BTW, now that Iran seems to be in every TV Anchor’s mouth (feeling oh so familiar to pre-Iraq war days…), using a million fraudelant excuses to go to war with ANY country in order to secure wealth or boost a country’s economy is also NOT acceptable for many reasons, but what should be important to our “elected” government is that the PEOPLE of these United States are not the ones behind such a derranged choice!!
Alarm rather than genuine scientific curiosity, it appears, is essential to maintaining funding. And only the most senior scientists today can stand up against this alarmist gale, and defy the iron triangle of climate scientists, advocates and policymakers.
Mr. Lindzen is Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Science at MIT.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110008220
I believe America is a force for good in the world, you obviously don’t. So I will not try to argue against your beliefs but refer you to Isaiah 5:20.
And Isaiah 5:20 (http://bible.cc/isaiah/5-20.htm) is referring to the USA is it?
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comI think the war in Iraq is a worthy cause, I think the American military will prove this to be a true historical fact. Unlike what you, Al Gore and all the other alarmist out there think will happen with climate change. The argument is not over otherwise we would not be debating the matter. There are many scientists out there who do disagree with you.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110008220
I would site many more articles but it time for survivor. After that I think I will download some ringtones.
Roark, Exactly the point I have been making..take a moment to think this through…
Isaiah 5: 20 reads as follows: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil…”
How can a country call someone our friend and good when we’re helping him kill others and 2 seconds later call him evil because now he’s killing us? That has been the case with Bin Laden and many others. How can we call it evil when people try to kill us and then say it’s good when we’re killing many others that had nothing to do with our attacks? Even if politics makes strange bedfellows it doesn’t excuse calling someone that’s a sociopath good when it suits us and then bad when it doesn’t….I agree with you …That’s why we can’t call the illegitimate actions of any government good just because it stems from the US and also we can’t say that everything that’s been done by the US has been bad, because that would also not be true. You obviously trust the Bible and the Bible says that “By their fruits you shall know them.” We don’t get a free pass just because you’re the USA or Mr. Bush or Mr. Bin Laden…Lies, deceit and murder are bad no matter who they happen to be coming from. Your actions and the consequences of those actions are what tell us if something is good or not (and the ultimate criteria cannot be that it’s good as long as it’s not happening to us). We must demand that from ourselves and our government–there are lives that depend on us being good citizens, good people and demanding this of our government…
As far as global warming, scientist have been trying to warn us since the 1970s and we didn’t listen then and we’re now facing those predictions head on. Change is inevitable and nature does not have a moral force, it just is–so when the conditions for our life form is no longer there, then we will no longer be viable either. Let’s think of the worst case scenario and say that global warming has been this incredibly well crafted and deceitful ruse, then what have we lost by listening to the scientist that believe CO2 is causing grave damage to our environment? We have cleaned up our environment of toxic emissions, stopped damaging the ozone layer and are using alternative forms of fuel. If we listen to these scientist, then the planet which we seem to feel we’re in charge of, will be less polluted and more sustainable for much longer–sounds good doesn’t it. Where is the harm in that? Now, if we choose not to listen, continue to pollute, add exponential amounts of CO2 into the environment and deplete our fossil fuel supplies then what have we gained and it will be too late then to turn things around? I’d rather err on the side of making this a better world than on the side of ruining the only planet we inhabit with all of the other life forms that would also be affected by our judgement….
Roark, Scientific evidence for global warming, and the effect humans have on it, is inconclusive at best. On that point we agree. True science is the ability to observe conclusivly the actions of a theory. There has not been any concrete proof, one way or the other, on global warming. After all, we were not driving cars and burning fossil fuels, when the last ice age left North America. Until such time, it would be prudent to err on the side of human activity and try to clean up the environment. If it is not warming the planet to drive so many cars, there may be other serious issues we have not yet discovered.
There are scamsters in every situation, from cures for disease, to global warming. There are also scientists, on both sides of the issue, who look specifically for evidence to bolster their theory only. Let’s not throw out the baby with the bath water on this.
Thank goodness you are the voice of reason in these debates. I simply choose not to argue with people who watch Survivor! Or get their information from someone who’s been inculcated with propaganda from the State Department. Soldier on, girl!
After everything that has come out in the last five years you sincerely believe “the war in Iraq is a worthy cause.”
I can’t remember who said it but it makes the point: “Attacking Iraq after 9/11 is like attacking Mexico after Pearl Harbor.”
Please, please TRY and explain why you feel that attacking a country that NEVER posed a threat to the US, that’s responsible for the slaughter one million innocent Iraqis, forcing about four million of them to flee from their own country (which would NOT have happened had we not attacked), being responsible for the death of thousands of US troops (the real patriots), crippling tens of thousands of others and dropping hundreds of tons of depleted uranium (radioactive for a mere 4.5 BILLION years) in Iraq is a “worthy cause.”
Rebecca, I was still writing mine when you posted yours. I did not see it until I finished writing. Looks like I stole part of it. I didn’t. Just a slow typer. Yours is much better, however.
I can’t watch Survivor either.
Bradbard, Because that’s where the oil is…. Also Iraq is strategically located, and that’s the reason we are building so many bases there. The “Worthy Cause” mantra can be heard everyday by the Neocons of the airwaves.
There are wonderful thoughts and ideas about a huge range of subjects expressed in this forum–as with everything, some of us have more affinity of thought than others, but we’re all lucky to be able to express them and learn from one another. I have learned so much from many people on this Forum. Thanks for the vote of confidence Maravilla. I tend to think that sometimes we lack information and when we all take a minute to listen to each other, sometimes we realize that we may just be much more similar than we expected in spite of our obvious differences. Alfred, I would never in a million years think you were stealing words from me, we just happen to think alike sometimes 🙂 …Pura Vida!
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