Thoughts on Greatness

A friend on Facebook asked what his friends think makes America great. Genuine thoughtful multiword answers. 

This is challenging to answer because I don’t feel like we are that great anymore. Nor have we been for a while. The folks I hear wanting to make America great again seem to want to go back to a time when everyone knew their place and kept quiet if they didn’t like it. 

Before the money was freed from actual gold. Before inflation outpaced earnings. 

But I didn’t really mean to spin off that direction. 

This is my answer:

The things that I feel make us great are pretty shaky lately. Great innovation, brilliant and creative thinkers. The ideal that we are all in it together and rise or fall together. The role of protector. We used to fight for the little guy, there’s a whole lot of “every man for himself” anymore. 

Ideals over profit. Especially in government.

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We used to be a nation of ideals and values that could be looked up to. And even if you didn’t agree with our methods, as not everyone does, you knew that the intention was usually pretty good. Our hearts were in the right place. 

Now our hearts are in our pockets and we just carry a bigger stick than anyone else.