America - are we winning?

Is America winning? What's the first thing that pops into your head when I say that? Do you think about the war in Iraq, the war against drugs, the war against immigration, the war against poverty, the war against terrorism, no child left behind, or any other haphazard political slogan crafted to gain votes and pit us against each other.

I think it would be interesting to ask a hundred or a thousand or a million people in the streets across the world that one question: Is America winning? and see what they say. I think the results would be outstandingly interesting, even if outstandingly isn't a word. I would ask them the question only, and after they responded yes or no or even with a poetic perhaps, I would ask them to define their criteria. That would be an interesting thesis for someone to do.

Personally, I don't know if America is winning. I would answer No if you randomly asked me that. I would base my criteria on the people I know, the news I see, the general malaise I feel walking the streets of Philadelphia searching for that hidden glimmer of happiness. I would answer no because we are building a country of victimization, a country where we don't have to accept responsibility, where we don't value ideas or freedoms or even each other. I would answer no because our government is lead by followers, and we are following the followers and all the leaders seem to have disappeared into the realm of hollywood myth. Maybe they never existed, maybe we have always been following followers, and the leaders only come every few hundred years and when they do, we relegate them to the dusty bins of sadness for they realize they can't change anything.

I would answer no because if we don't realize who we are, we can't move beyond our own weaknesses. I would answer no because I can't make myself happy, and if I can't be happy here then maybe I can't be happy anywhere. I would not be answering for America, I would be answering for myself. The America of the old west looks beautiful when filmed correctly, and now the only beautiful pictures of America are romantic comedies that fizzle reality like a bad kiss. Most of our pictures of ourselves involve lost families in the suburbs, gangsters, idiots, and superheroes. Can we be winning when these are our comfort foods?

America has the power to lead. We do not. We have the power to change the world for the good. Instead, we change the world for our good. That's not the same thing. Sometimes, maybe, but not in general. If I were to be drafted, which won't happen I'm to old now, I would rather die trying to stop a genocide than for a meaningless war. I am not a martyr, but at least then maybe there would be meaning.

Which isn't to say I'm hopeless. I think America is a great country, as I think I can become a great man. I think all things take time, patience, energy. I am not America. I don't seem to identify with many of the overriding feelings of the day, I don't identify with the hate. I'm angry, but I'm not hateful. I suppose I could argue that alone means I am not losing entirely. I suppose that alone means I could change. I suppose that alone means I am not America.