American Culture: The Decline of a Nation

My friends would have you believe I am one of the biggest patriots they know, but I have my own concerns  and complaints about America but choose not to talk about them often.  I don't talk about them often because I don't even participate the easiest patriotic duty that is given to me, vote.  Now I have had many people tell me I should vote and that men and women have lost their lives to give me that freedom and I completely agree, but when I feel my vote does not count then what is the use?  Yes, that's the age old excuse but I see it in almost every state and national election.  When a candidate has the advantages of being apart of a major political party, an incumbent, or extra time in a debate it shows me that it's not about who's most qualified for the job, it's about who you know and affiliation you have in America.

When an elected president can lose the popular vote and win the election, it's a slap in the face to the American people saying you don't know what is best for yourselves.  One of the most famous presidential elections where that occurred was the Truman vs. Dewey election.  Dewey wins the popular vote and newspapers begin printing the front page stating Dewey defeats Truman, later to find out the electoral college disagreed with the public and elected Harry S. Truman to a second term.  When your government doesn't listen to it's people when they vote, there is a problem.  You may say well if you voted you could change it, but do you really think that will change the constitution to eliminate the electoral college?  I do love my country and wouldn't live anywhere else, but we do some boneheaded things sometimes.  This leads me to the purpose of the blog, the change in America's culture and attitude will eventually be the demise of this once great country.

For starters, when did the minority get to out rule the majority?  Almost once a month a news story gains national attention because some atheist student or their parents don't like the prayer banner or moment of silence the school permits, and the state agrees and shuts it down.  I don't know the exact numbers but I do believe religious people still far outnumber atheists, so why would we stop something most enjoy for one person or a few people?  Because we have to respect everyone's opinion these days, even if it's not right.  The fact that the American Declaration of Independence mentions God (Creator) and our constitution's first amendment states it cannot make a law barring religious expression (separation of church and state) shows me that our government does what it wants.  So how can the law enforce  a religious expression be taken down if it's protected by the Constitution?  If the atheist students don't like it, don't read it or participate.  Just because you don't like football doesn't mean you should have the program removed from the school.  In my opinion, that is how absurd it is to not allow religious expression in our schools or public offices.  What I find interesting today, is that now our presidential candidates are more open to expressing their religious beliefs and no one says a word.

The second cultural issue is our educational system.  I wrote an entire blog on this topic so I will spend little time on this subject.  In the past it was almost a privilege to go to school and graduate, now it's a burden on the students, parents, and even our teachers.  It's estimated that 7,000 students drop out of school every day, and our government does nothing about this and even worst neither do our parents and teachers.  I've always said you get what you pay for and paying teachers low salaries is why we are in this situation now.  We can spend millions of taxpayers dollar a year to fly government officials and their families (Nancy Pelosi) all around the nation, but we can't give teachers a salary increase?  We spend time pulling people over because of a tail light being out, instead of getting those dropouts and putting them back in school?  We allow dead beat parents to not care about their child's education because the parents are uneducated themselves?  Accepting that this is just the way it is shows me that it's in our government's best interest to keep people there, otherwise who's going to work those minimum wage jobs if everyone graduates?

This leads me to my next topic, America's new idea that everyone's a winner.  When I was growing up and played sports not all teams received a trophy at the end of the season.  If you did well your team was awarded a trophy, if you team was terrible you got nothing.  Now, even if you place dead last your trophy is just a big as the team's trophy who won first place.  Competition is one of the qualities that makes countries and civilizations better, and to remove that only removes one of the oldest pillars of America.  Because we celebrate win, lose, or draw it's no wonder people's work ethic is terrible.  When you are never told you're wrong or terrible at something your self-esteem becomes too high, and the moment they find out they were all of those, things they lose it.  We wonder why suicide is growing in America, it's because people don't know how to deal with failure, maybe they should read about Abraham Lincoln or Jesus.  I doubt your life is worse than those two!  Let our children know they failed or are terrible at something, otherwise you'll have a child who goes on American Idol thinking they can sing, and we've all seen how that turns out.

The final topic is how our government supports the slackers in America.  When I say slackers, I don't mean you lost your job, and you are getting unemployment until you can find another job.  I mean those who stay on unemployment, collect welfare, and food stamps and do nothing to rise up out of the dependency of government support.  I've been down on my luck and collected unemployment, but I found a job and am no longer on unemployment.   It's frustrating to watch those who collect government assistance just continue to do nothing to better themselves, and the government does nothing about it.  I've searched for people to hire in the past and when I've called someone for an interview, they tell me the application was submitted because they have to submit so many to continue to collect unemployment.  I was shocked and disgusted, but it's the same for welfare and other assistance programs.  States basically pay people to stay at home and have more kids so they can receive more assistance.  I am not saying no one should receive assistance, but it should be taken more seriously and regulated.  You get 5 years of total assistance for your whole life, after that you get nothing else, ever!  Some will say well it's the children that suffer if you do that, but to be honest they are already suffering because most of the assistance they get doesn't go to feeding and clothing the children.

In closing, no country is perfect and like I said earlier there's no other place I'd rather be, but things will only continue to get worse if it's not corrected.  It seems that ever since the removal of God in our government things have only gone downhill.  People no longer care and there is nothing to hold them accountable for their actions.  Maybe the smaller support of atheism and more of Jesus would lead to more kids enjoying school and graduating, not committing suicide, understanding there is only one winner Jesus, and having some type of self-worth, and electing those most qualified would solve all our problems?  But for now our culture  accepts our gradual decline in everything compared to the rest of the world, but I will try and do my part to make it better and hope others will do the same.  It's not too late yet, it all starts at home, your community, state, and then nation.  We are all responsible for each other, have you been letting everyone down like myself?

Glory Always to Christ!

My Response to the Top 10 Reason Why I Don't Believe in God (Part 3)

Sorry for the long absence on this topic, but I have opted to not finish Part 3.  The reasoning was due to the lack of views for the blog, as I imagine that her reasons were lacking depth so to argue against them isn't worth the time to read.  I plan to post another blog  over the next couple of days.  If you have any request please feel free to shoot me a message or note at the bottom.

Glory Always be to the Lord!