**Things I Like About America

Some of my Right leaning friends will sometimes accuse me of “Dishing” America, instead of focusing on the positive attributes of our country. For clarification I do not dislike America, I care about this countries people very much, even though I strongly disapprove of some of the abhorrent past behaviors of some of our leaders and people in positions of wealth and power.

Any system, organization, or relationship has its inherent shortfalls and weaknesses. If one refuses to call out and try to make corrections so that the indentified weaknesses may be removed or changed, than the delivery systems of these entities will ultimately fail.

My grandparents came to this country at the beginning of the Twentieth Century to flee the oppressive and brutal czarist regimes of Russia. America offered my grandparents opportunities for potential prosperity, religious freedom, and a government that would allow them to openly criticize its leaders. The ability to financially prosper and choose ones religious beliefs, are very important covenants of our system.

When one is in the moment and an oppressed minority in any society, the timeline of progress may many times appear to be endless or non-existent. Looking back over the last one hundred and fifty years of America’s history I will highlight what I perceive to be social progress.

• Mid 1800’s growth of the Abolitionist movement to eliminate slavery.
• Teddy Roosevelt creates National Park system to preserve and nurture valuable parts of the landscape and environment.
• Teddy Roosevelt makes major headway in dissolving steel, oil, railroad, banking, and industrial trusts that choked out competition and resulted in higher costs to the consumer.
• The “Sufferjets” ultimately winning a women’s right to vote, 1920.
• FDR spearheading the creation of Social Security to stabilize the retirement system for the average American.
• FDR creating the SEC and FDIC, Glass–Steagall Act of 1932, to stabilize and control egregious bank lending and stock manipulation practices.
• NLRB, 1935, Wagner Act, gave labor unions bargaining power on par with corporate power, so workers could assert their rights.
• Thurgood Marshall winning 1954 landmark Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education, outlawing school segregation.
• LBJ’s Civil Rights Act of 1964 that made a major step in eliminating segregation and racial divides.
• Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967)[1], was a landmark civil rights case in which the United States Supreme Court, by a 9-0 vote, declared Virginia's anti-miscegenation statute, the "Racial Integrity Act of 1924", unconstitutional, thereby overturning Pace v. Alabama (1883) and ending all race-based legal restrictions on marriage in the United States.
• The Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972 instituted the federal Equal Employment Opportunity program, which is designed to ensure fair treatment to all segments of society without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, or sex.
• Roe v. Wade, 1973, was a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of abortion. This law was an important step in giving women dominion over their reproductive rights and bodies.
• Health Care Reform Act, 2010, making major first steps in improving and creating health services for all Americans.
• Many people who so generously volunteer their time and money to try to improve the lives of the downtrodden and less fortunate.

The above highlighted progressive social and economic changes are a patent indication that we have made major inroads to improving the equality and opportunities for all Americans. Going back to my major premise, we need to continually clearly indentify, accept, and carve out positive solutions to removing impediments to equality and quality of life for all Americans.

America was not founded, just for the benefit of a handful of elitist power brokers and financiers. Unfortunately we sometimes move to the “Darkside”, and empower Corporate Personhood, relax environmental, safety, and consumer protections, create morally repugnant “False Flag Events” such as “911”, and war against innocent nation states for the sole purpose of imperialistic control of their natural and economic resources.

Throughout history those who proposed progressive changes to society always faced opposition from established power structures of religion, corporations, staid traditionalists, slave owners, racists, power elite, and people just generally fearful of any changes. These progressive pioneers were labeled communists, socialists, heretics, anarchists, and whatever other inappropriate venomous labels, that those who felt threatened by progressive change try to use as irrational ammunition, to try and maintain the status quo.

If we just stick to the “Golden Rule”, become very well educated, create opportunity for all, work hard, and maintain our Moral Compass, America can only become even better than it has in the last few centuries.