I have had a love affair with the USA since I was a child. We lived in New York when I was a baby and it was a city that was so good that my parents never had a harsh word to say about it. My Aunt did the Greyhound bus as she travelled around in 1968 visiting hospitals as she researched renal treatment before setting up a unit in London. As a child, I watched the US cartoons, I read their children's books. Nancy Drew, the Bobbsey twins, Sue Barton, Cherry Ames, they were as familiar to me as the Chalet School and Malcolm Saville.
I was part of the Americas living in Brasil and we had American friends and American imports. It was a county I felt I knew intimately except I didn't visit until I was 10 for Disneyworld and then I went round the States on a greyhound bus with the odd plane thrown in. It felt as though I was at home in Seattle and New York, Washington was extraordinary. The South was a foreign county, Texas spoke a foreign language (and I don't mean Spanish) while the Midwest was open and stunning. I did the tourist things.
Later I mourned the Twin Towers, celebrated the end of the Cold War, admired the Democracy and discovered Amtrak. America was great for me.
There are few countries that can have America's record on democracy - a tradition of a President handing peacefully to the next. A Congress, a senate and a judiciary separated from each other and th Executive designed for checks and balances. A nation that believed in 'Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness'.
It's a country that has great respect for its history, the Presidency, the Stars and Stripes. Few countries can get away with their leaders instinctively saying 'God Bless America' and you know it's sincere. There is a delight in success and an inate belief in righteous and patriotism that in this country would feel insincere, be mocked or talked down. In America it feels right.
And yet now Trump wants to make America great again. Why?
Culturally the USA is magnificent. It has Hollywood, independent filmmakers, superb television drama, music from Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, American Idol stars. It has created its own genres in jazz, the blues and rock while continuing the country tradition. It's justly famous orchestras and opera houses are privately funded.
Environmentally, think of the natural landscapes, the oceans, the Great Lakes. The National Parks founded as early as the 19th century. There is freedom to hunt and fish, hike and camp. That's before you think about the extremes of Alaska, the Florida keys, Yosemite, Niagara.
Economically it's been strong. Independence Movement 'no taxation without representation', oil, coal, nuclear, Natural resources aplenty and a workforce with an entrepreneurial edge. A rewards culture and a belief in the American dream. A land of plenty and a land of immigration.
The land of the free. The land of the immigrant, the land that welcomed the Irish when they were starving, the land that welcomed the Poles when they had nothing, the land that welcomed Russian refugees, the land that provided a sanctuary for the Jews when they had none.
And yet it has never been without its flaws.
Early wealth was built on slavery. Michelle Obama, a descendant of slaves, talked about living in a White House that was build by slaves.
Abraham Lincoln was elected President by the electoral college but the Southern States were not part of their that and their cessation led to the bloody civil war from which there could really be no winers. In the rebuilding of the Union the first Civil Rights Act was later condemned by the Supreme Court as unconstituenal.
During the period of industrialisation, the native Americans were driven from their homelands, Rockefeller bankrupted the competion while building his empire, Frick's Art Collection is now a gallery and the Carnegie Foundation has done countless good and the Rockefellers went on to public service.
Was American great in 1930s following the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Few would say so. Prohibition was inglorious. Roosevelt supported the war effort but American would only declare war onnce Japan had attacked Pearl Harbour yet that was a war to challenge Hitler and Stalin. Did Truman have to drop bombs on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki or was that a way to prove military superiority to USSR?
1950s saw economic development but the liberal wing was persecuted by Anti-American McCarthy who included Robert Kennedy on his committee.
1960s - a glamorous age of Camelot and space travel but an era of protest against segregation and for Civil Rights. An age of assassination with the loss of John F Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy and many whose names are unknown to all but their families as they stood up for what they believed in.It was an age of protest against the draft and Vietnam. Was America great?
1970s saw shame in the impeachment of Nixon yet it was prosperous. It was the age of protest for women's rights. Can a country be truly great if it treats a large proportion of society as second class citizens and denies full health-care. It was the age of 3 mile island, a misjudgement on Iran.
Perhaps Trump wants to take USA back to 1980s? An age of deregulation, no gun control and the loss of more citizens including John Lennon and countless others. it was the age of Challenger and the Iran Contra affair. The USA invaded Grenada. Was it right to do so? California saw the spread of AIDS which became global.
1990s and the end of the Cold War. Washington saw its share of disgrace through Mr Clinton but while America liberated Kuwait did it do enough? Race Riots in Los Angeles and bombings in Oklahoma and the World Trade Centre. 'Don't ask, Don't tell' Openly gay or bisexual people forbidden from serving in the military. Colombine High School & Waco questions gun control. In contrast, Dunblane and Hungerford puts a stranglehold on British gun ownership.
From 2001 America has had the shadow of the 9/11 bombings hanging over it. the existence of Guantanmo and waterboarding leave me uneasy. The invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan without a reconstruction plan and now Syria has left the word a poorer place.
And yet, America is a great country. Its industrial past may be rusting, its people have suffered foreclosures and racial abuse. There are too many victims of gun crime but
There is an energy and a self-belief that is second to none, a friendliness that has spread customer service and 'have a good day' around the world. It may have its flaws but 'quite frankly ... I don't give a damn' and after all 'nobody's perfect'!
President Trump, you do America a disservice. it's not needed to make America great again. In my biased opinion it already is and righly there are celebrations every 4th July.
"We believe that these truths are self-evident and that we are endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable rights and that amongst these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
"Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."
"Yes we can. Yes we did."
God bless the United States of America.
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