Who made America Great?

A quick thought before I start. Everyone knows the phrase: give them an inch and they will take a mile. The origination of this phrase goes all the way back to the caveman era. It started when the first cave husbands where asked by the cave wives to stay home one Saturday to perform one task around the cave. He agreed thinking it was okay to miss whatever version of caveman golf existed at the time for one Saturday. So, he agrees to the one task around the cave and half way through the cave wife starts adding to the list and before he knows it he has spent the entire day in the cave. He grunts out the cavemen noises for inches and miles and hence we have the saying.

Who made American great? The irony is that the answer is included in the infamous post 2012 election results for the Republicans. Remember they put together a review of how they failed and were going to implement it going forward. Like everything else worthwhile politicians soon forget what they promised.

Our history is filled with monumental greatness and almost simultaneously horrific deeds. One day we will learn to separate the two and take giant leaps forward for civilization. For now, though it helps to remember who made the great part of America.

It even starts from the very beginning. The Pilgrims came here for religious freedom, suffered, made new friends and ended up creating what we now know as Thanksgiving. They were immigrants coming for something they didn’t have and eventually built something they felt was better for themselves.

And from that start America grew. This growth was constantly fueled by immigration. These same immigrants then their descendants became everyone from entrepreneurs to laborers to professionals to artists that built this country. And we could not be where we are today, nor have the potential to be even greater without the diverse group of people who came here to build a better life.

There were also the immigrants of the 1800’s such as the Irish, Eastern Europeans, and Asians on the West Coast. Each of these groups suffered some abuse and eventually through their communities survived then thrived. And each of the immigrant groups built businesses, usually family businesses, some became large corporations through the work of the family, others the descendants became Doctors or Professors because they were given a value system not just of hard work, also of self-worth.

Also throughout our history is one group of people exploiting other groups to achieve great wealth and power. The next step then becomes the exploited group rising and establishing their identity and working within and sometimes outside of the system. Sometimes the exploited group had help, sometimes they did it on their own. The most obvious examples are the abolishment of slavery due to the Civil War: the late 1800s when workers started their riots for better working conditions; and most recently the Civil Rights movement. After each event there was improvement in the quality of life.

After people immigrated they assimilated in some ways and in other ways they kept their original culture hence the little Italys; China towns; and other ethnic areas dedicated to shops, restaurants, entertainment from the original native land. America became this infamous melting pot we read about in history books. And this melting pot built us into the zenith of the American dream.

For generations we have watched each group of immigrants add to the power, the diversity, to businesses, to culture, to art, to education and to our greatness.

And now we elect a President who wants to make us great again. And in doing so, we are failing ourselves by doing the exact opposite of what made us great. All these groups had desire, drive, ambition, etc.. they wanted a better life for themselves and for their children. Now a select group of Americans think they are somehow better. One group is the infamous one percenters, people who feel they are better than others due to their wealth. We have seen this before in the late 1800s and the 1920s. The other group is the people who feel their world is faltering and they need someone to blame. They feel superior in their blame. This is the same group that once they assimilated into our country blamed the next group of immigrants for their problems. And each time we overcame their controls and fears, we became better as a country.

The good news is you probably knew this before you read this post. Our history is well documented. Our greatness is because we recognized what all who have come before having done and then contributed our self. So, to continue to be great we need to overcome these two groups and replace the class society and the fear with what our ancestors brought forth to this country. A desire for something better.

Who made America great? It was you and I and our forefathers, our ancestors, the person that arrived one day and dreamed of a better life and then built that life. It was not the entitled, the feudal rich, hate mongers, the ignorant, the bigots etc… They may control the conversation in the government right now, yet they do not control the destiny. The destiny of our greatness lays in our own hands.

Happy Thanksgiving all

On a side note:

Back to the first paragraph about the Republicans; they were to become more inclusive. They completely forget most Americans of all races, creeds, colors are more conservative than liberal. The Republicans had an opportunity to become inclusive and if they put the middle class first would have taken this country to new heights, instead we have sunk to new lows. And you wonder why I say we need new parties to represent us.