I love my country. I love the freedoms it affords and I love that I can worship when and where and how I choose. Although I don't own a gun, I'm glad those who like to hunt and feel the need to protect themselves are allowed to have them. You will, however, never, ever, ever convince me that it should be legal to sell automatic weapons to anyone other than police personnel. Don't even try.
I have great admiration and respect for the men and women who are in far flung places around the world defending our freedoms.
Yet, for all the love I feel towards this country I also strongly feel that there is vast room for improvement. For example:
*The US ranks fourteenth (out of forty) in cognitive skills and education attainment.*
*The US ranks second in ignorance (out of 14) about social statistics such as teen pregnancy, unemployment rates and voting patterns.*
*The US ranks 24th (out of 65) in literacy.*
*The US ranks 17th (out of 40) in educational performance.*
*Seventy-five percent of the US is monolingual (when I was telling Kate this I said "monolithic").
I recently watched a documentary on HBO called "American Winter," which put a spotlight on eight Portland, OR families facing extreme financial difficulty (I know...I'm watching quite a bit of sobering television lately...don't worry, I watch my fair share of junk, too).
All were facing eviction and/or on the verge of having their utilities disconnected. Most families had no income coming in, and if they did, it was one person in the family with a part-time job.
Assuming the situation is similar in Kansas, a family of of four, with one full-time minimum wage earner can expect to make $15,080 per year. The poverty level for a family of four is $23,850.
Now, most of these families would qualify for some type of assistance, but the situation remains bleak.
If both parents worked full-time at minimum wage AND had to pay daycare for one child (approximately $11,664 per year) that drops them back down to $18,496.
So, I've come up with a plan that could work. Actually, given its simplicity in nature it probably never would.
But here it is anyway.
The highest paid athlete in the world is Floyd Mayweather ($105 million in 2014)
The highest paid actor last year was Robert Downey, Jr ($75 million)
The highest paid actress last year was Angelina Jolie ($30 - do you notice that she earned LESS than half than Downey?)
A thirty second commercial in Sunday's Super Bowl costs $4.5 million
The 2014 combined total income of the New England Patriot's football team is $132,745,307**
The 2014 combined total income of the Seattle Seahawk's football team is $130,532,679**
Do I really need to say any more? I know, I know, I know that those things generate income and that many of the people involved are very philanthropic.
But even if we took a couple hundred million from the entertainment industry, think of how many job training centers could be funded.
Think how many little bellies would be full every night.
Think how many lives could be lifted out of poverty.
Think how much more attainable the American Dream would be for many.
I know my thinking is Pollyanna-ish. But we really, really, really could do so much better.
And there are many other aspects of our culture/practices/ideology that I think could stand some realignment, but I'll leave that for another post.
This is a link to the first episode of HBO's "Newsroom." Will McAvoy, a CNN-type anchorman (played brilliantly by Jeff Daniels) responds to the question "What makes America the best country in the world?) It's simply brilliant (warning...the eff bomb is present) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTjMqda19wk
*Statistics from Ranking America
**Does not include $15.5 million in head coach salaries
Next time...on the road again
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