Reality Check

When will America's testicles drop?  

When will we stand tall and act like the leaders of the free world?  Tolerating terrorism in Iraq against our soldiers........why?  Tolerating terrorism in Afghanistan against our soldiers.....why?  Allowing the rest of the world to make issue of the prison abuses that have occurred..............why?  Most of the countries pointing the finger at us have lengthy histories of committing far worse abuses against foreigners and their own people (don't get me wrong, I don't advocate abuse of prisoners, but at least we didn't drag them through the streets or saw off their heads) than we do.  This lack of action, this paralysis by analysis, this fear of offending others was created, in part(s) by the school system, organized sports for younger children and single parent households.  

When our public schools began eliminating grades in elementary and junior high school, because grades make the learning atmosphere competitive and some children feel different, because of low grades, we eliminated a basic component needed to succeed as adults.  We eliminated competitiveness and the drive for success.  Competition is good.  Pass/fail grades are not good.  If children are not taught to work hard and strive for success, they will miss the basic foundation of competition.  Hard work, competition and success are valued in the adult business world, but we have eliminated it from the school system.  The result of this is a lack of growth in American industry (the decline in American made auto's, electronics and other devices, as well as the influence of foreign technology on the economy), followed by a lack of intestinal fortitude in our leaders.  The business world was once a battlefield and the! boardroom was the strategic command.  Now, the battlefield has been replaced by a "level playing field" and the strategic command is a meeting seeking "growth through global diversity".  Hostile takeovers are a thing of the past.  Mutually fulfilling mergers have taken their place (how do you think Time/Warner/AOL feel about mergers that meet each others needs......how about their shareholders?).

When did we stop making sports competitive for children?  Someone, somewhere decided to stop keeping score, to help with children's self esteem.  The soccer mom's and little league mom's might feel better because little Johnny doesn't know the score, but ask any kid who just lost a soccer game 12 to 1 or a baseball game 22 to 0 and they know they lost (hell, most of them know the score).  We are born competitive.  If a prehistoric human brought home a lizard for dinner, the guy in the cave next door tried to bring home a dinosaur.  If your neighbor buys a Hyundai, you buy a Chevrolet.  If the person in the cubicle next to you gets a promotion, you should feel glad for him or her, but inside you should be disappointed it wasn't you.  If you are ambivalent about success, you may have already suffered irreversible damage, caused by a lack of competition while growing up.  This is how the pussification of! America spreads.

Few people are bold enough to admit that the influx of single parent households, as a result of divorce, has been the single biggest contributor to the castration of America.  However, it has.  As more and more single mothers raised children in an environment of "play dates" and healthy competition where score was not kept, children were put in a position of trying to suppress their natural competitive urges.  As teenagers, they become obsessed with competitive video games, where there are clear winners and losers and score is always kept.  That has now advanced to online gaming with head to head competition via the internet.  Video game competition seldom transfers to real life.

As soon as parents realize that children need competition to succeed (academics, sports, employment, relationships), a giant popping sound will be heard, as America's testicles drop and we begin the climb back to the top of the food chain.  Our reliance on public opinion polls to make decisions shows a real lack of intestinal fortitude and may cost President Bush his reelection bid.  Fighting and stopping at landmarks and religious shrines is ridiculous, if the people we are pursuing retreat into said areas, we should not stop.  If a rogue nation, that uses torture as a means of interrogation calls us barbaric for the actions of a few, we should point that out as the hypocrisy it is.  We should also be willing to hold the people accountable for their actions (the abusers) and their inaction's (first and second level supervisors who knew or should have known what was going on under their direction).  Standing tall an! d doing the right thing, because it is the right thing to takes balls.  The leaders of this great nation must have the balls to make decisions and empower those around them to do the same.  Keep in mind that the term "balls" is not a chauvinistic term.  It is a term that describes strong will and great personal integrity.  Margaret Thatcher had balls;  Bill Clinton did not (although Monica may not agree).  Ronald Reagan had balls;  Jimmy Carter did not.  Do you?

Stay tuned, for future rants!  Questions, comments, ideas? Send them to me.  I probably won't write back, but you never know.

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