POLITICS - What Happened to American Values?

"What Are American Values?" by Milt Shook

Here are a few facts to ponder:

• The world's human population has topped 6 billion and is likely to top 9 billion in 20 years. As it stands, fully one-half of the world's population is trying to survive on $2 per day or less.


• Hundreds of millions of children worldwide have no access to schooling. The United Nations set a goal for all nations to put aside one percent of the amount spent on weapons to pay for schools, and to do so by 2000. This modest amount of money would have provided schooling for every child in the world, yet we couldn't achieve that goal. As a result, nearly 1 billion adults worldwide lack the ability to read, or even sign their name.


• Four million babies and 11 million children under the age of 5 die every year due to poverty, due to the absence of food and/or potable water, or a lack of basic medical care.


• While the combined wealth of the world’s 200 richest people hit $1 trillion in 1999, while the combined incomes of the 582 million people living in the 43 least developed countries is $146 billion. As of 1997, the 20% richest people in the world have 74 times the income of the poorest 20% as of 1997; in 1960, the ratio was 30:1.


• The entire world faces major crises in the areas of energy and food production, as well as a politically and socially crippling shortage of water in the coming years, especially as the population soars to the 9 billion mark. At the same time, we are facing a changing world climate that could cause those problems to be exacerbated.


• The United States, which always used to pride itself on freedom and liberty, is now threatening smaller countries, invading countries with little or no ability to defend themselves, and using war to prop up its economy. We have adopted torture as a tactic against people we see as "enemies," and spying on people in this country, under the guise of "protection."


• Also in this country, our economy is on the verge of major disaster because of a huge national debt that continues to spiral out of control. Every year, American taxpayers spend upwards of $1200 for every man, woman and child in the country, just to pay the interest on that debt. And yet, we continue to allow this debt burden to increase, thus creating an untenable situation for our children and grandchildren; a situation that all but guarantees higher taxes for them.


• More than 47 million Americans have no health insurance, a number that is predicted to increase to 65 million in 6 years. As a result, there are pockets of the United States, acknowledged to be the richest country in the world, in which access to medical care is so bad, mortality rates rival those in most third-world countries. Nationally, our health statistics are among the worst in the developed word. For the first time since the early 20th century, our infant mortality rate is actually increasing.

These are all major problems, and all of them could have a major impact on this country and its safety and security. At the very least, we should be doing whatever we can to help alleviate these problems.

Yet, what are the top issues that Americans seem care about right now, if our media is to be believed? Whether Don Imus should be fired for saying the same things he's been saying for years; the heartwarming disclosure that Larry Birkhead is indeed the father of Anna Nicole's baby; and the incredible ride of Sanjaya Malakar, and whether not he can "ruin" American Idol.

And for once, I'm not just blaming the news media. We reap what we sow. For the most part, Americans don't vote. Even fewer have ever written their Congressperson with their concerns; a majority of Americans probably have to dig deep into the recesses of their brains to even name their Congressperson. We don't write letters to the editor. Essentially, the things we care about can be expressed in one word;

Money.

Yeah, if it affects our pocketbooks, we care. If something the government does or doesn't do affects our ability to accumulate worthless crap, we get really upset. And if the cost of a gallon of gasoline goes above $3, we become distraught.

What happened to American values? We must have some, because an awful lot of people go on and on about them. Of course, those who scream the loudest about values rarely demonstrate values themselves, so perhaps I'm off base. Perhaps we really don't have values, but merely pretend to them.

My fellow Americans, this is food for thought.