(ThyBlackMan.com) American, the land of opportunity. But is that enough to make a country great? Trump says make America great again and Hillary says America never stopped being great. But my question is when was America ever great in the first place? And for all the people who accept the Trump or Hillary talking points, what is your definition of “great“?
Let’s see what the evidence shows. A group of renegades fled England because they did not want to follow the rules. They came to this land then deceived, betrayed and killed the indigenous people commonly known as “native Americans“. These colonists and founding fathers then bought and captured African slaves, bred them like cattle, abused them, made them build the country then refused to even acknowledge them as equal men and women. The slaves were raped, tortured, lynched and pitted against each other. Was this when America was great?
By definition, the founding fathers of America were in fact traitors, murderers, kidnappers and hypocrites who would have been executed if they had not defeated the British. Yet they are hailed as 
if they are pioneering heroes with innovative vision. Down through the years racism, sexism, oppression and discrimination pervaded this land, but those who refer to America’s greatness seem to conveniently forget its history. Was this American greatness? So slavery was abolished by the “great emancipator” but most people even today do not understand Lincoln’s real motives.
Fast forward and here we are today in this “great America“, land of the free, home of the brave. But who is free? Certainly not African American mentally, spiritually or economically. America is so great that it has the highest incarceration rate of any civilized country. America is so great that justice is blind because she ignores the facts and turns a blind eye to the truth. America is so great that it has been proven African Americans are targeted and disproportionately incarcerated, regular victims of police brutality and shot down unarmed by those who took an oath to protect us.
Even today we face covert segregation, institutional racism, sexism and religious discrimination. What is great about these things embedded into the foundation of a nation?
America, home of the brave? Then let’s see how America’s brave are treated. Our military veterans are committing suicide at a rate of 20 a day and the VA hospital is a nightmare for so many brave soldiers who wait for medical help. Our country has a higher level of military spending than the next five countries combined, yet we are neither safe from terrorists nor active shooters such as in Columbine or the batman killer. The brave police officers who do the right thing are underpaid and the officers who do the wrong thing are often protected by the “justice” system at the expense of the lives they take. This is how “great” America is today.
Many of you may say America was once known and respected as a great nation around the world. But I would suggest to you that America was feared more than respected. The ability to instill fear, however, does not make a country great. If it did, Nazi Germany would have been great. How great is America when over 40 million people are on food stamps while the government is steadily reducing the amounts? How great is America when there is a church on every major street but homelessness is alive and well, divorce rates are high, domestic violence rates are up and children are constantly being born out of wedlock?
How great is America when men behave like women, women behave like men and people believe you can actually change a person’s gender by switching body parts? You can take the trunk off an elephant and put it on a giraffe but that does not make the giraffe an elephant. Sociologically, America suffers from disrespectful music, reality show infections and poor role models. Academically America’s educational systems at the primary and secondary levels are lacking and simply producing worker drones. At the college level, students are plunging into six figure debt before they even graduate and find a job. If morality makes a country great, America is in trouble.
Yes in America you can start a business, buy a car, own a home, get a free cell phone, get free food and even subsidized housing. But if half of the opportunity in America is for those in poverty, is this what makes a country great? And what about the health of American citizens? Maybe that is what makes America great. Let’s take a look and see. Our people struggle with obesity, cancer, toxic pharmaceutical drugs, diabetes, leukemia, heart attacks, strokes and new diseases they have not even invented yet. All the while we can send a satellite to Pluto, prepare to go to Mars and clone a sheep, but not find cures for much of anything.
Be careful of those who would turn back the clock on the rights and privileges our ancestors have fought and died to acquire. And be careful of those who deny the foundational history of this country. It is clear that America’s states are not “united“. We can see this as states battle the federal government in our courts, over borders, same sex marriages, the killing of millions of unborn children, gun control, confused gender bathrooms and public opinion polls that show a lack of confidence in our political leaders.
You have the right to vote and so you should exercise that right. But you also need to know and face the whole truth. For example, this country has two systems of voting to elect the President that run simultaneously – two systems that can push the election in either direction. There is the popular vote (at the ballot box) and then there is the electoral college vote. Whomever gets the numbers needed from the electoral college will be declared the new President – regardless of what the ballot box shows. That is what happened when Bush beat Al Gore. Do your research. Does your vote count? Yes but not like you think it does.
If you want to tell me “leave this country if it’s so bad“, I have a response for you. I was born here. I have a right to be here. But I also have a right to speak the truth, whether you like it or not, whether or not you are willing to admit it, whether you agree or not. If America is so great, it should never be afraid to look in the mirror.
America does have its strong points but only an honest and balanced view of America as a whole will cause decent people to see and admit the truth. You could compare America to other countries in order to increase the illusion of greatness. You could also say you made the highest score on a test, but if the highest score was a 68, did you do a great job? My point is that we can always compare ourselves to someone far below us in order to make ourselves seem better, higher or greater. But that does not make it true. So I ask you once again, when was America great?
Staff Writer; Trevo Craw