America, the freest, the greatest, country in the world? It used to be…

America is not the only country in the world that has freedom. Canada has freedom, Japan has freedom, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Australia, Belgium, has freedom… 207 sovereign states in the world and 180 have freedom.

There is no evidence that America is the greatest country in the world.

We’re 7th in literacy, 27th in math, 22nd in science, 49th in life expectancy, 178 in infant mortality, 6th in median household income, number 4 in labor force and number 4 in exports.

We lead the world in only three categories. The number of incarcerated citizens per capita. The number of adults that believe angels are real, and defense spending… where we spend more than the next 26 countries combined.

Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” is not the ‘used to be’ I think about.

We used to be the greatest. We stood up for what was right. We fought for moral reasons… we passed laws for moral reasons, not for political reasons.

We waged wars on poverty, not poor people… we sacrificed… we cared about our neighbors… we put our money where our mouths were, not bigoted phrases.

We built great big things, made ungodly technological advances, explored the universe, cured diseases, cultivated the worlds greatest artists and the worlds greatest economy.

We reached for the stars. Acted like men. We aspired to intelligence, we didn’t belittle it. We didn’t identify ourselves by who we voted for in the last election.

We were able to be all these things, and do all these things, because we were informed. Informed with facts and by educated editorials, not by conspiracy theories.

First step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one.