Where's the magic?

I'm a car guy, so I'm going to use a car reference to get my point across...

Ford is posting major losses this year and I can't figure out why. Ford of Australia has a line of cars that remind me somewhat of the last generation BWM 5 series and, from what I've read, kicks some serious ass when optioned up properly. When asked if this line of cars was coming to the U.S., a Ford rep responded along the lines of "No, we have a different plan for the U.S. market."

WTF?!?!? A different plan?? The rest of the world got a brand new Ford Focus a few years ago, but they didn't update the one here... I mean, wasn't the U.S. the birthplace of Ford? Can't we get the cool cars?

And the thing is, I don't even like Fords all that much... the problem is the we, THE United States of America, have our automakers attaching themselves to foreign automakers just keep themselves alive. We, THE United States of America, can't produce a car that I'd feel comfortable buying and knowing I'd get 10 years out of it before a major component needed replacement.

How is this possible? We were the mighty empire. We were the world standard. Democracy, world class culture & high technology all in one package.

And now many countries resent us. We have had a major terrorist attack on our own soil. Our own companies ship jobs overseas.... and not just menial jobs, but high-level customer support jobs and programming jobs and print/media work (to name a few). We portray ourselves on television and internet worldwide with our "reality tv shows" (don't get me started) and our seeming inability to lose weight so we have 9800 new diets, products and programs every year. Our major manufacturing industries can't compete with the rest of the world. We can't keep ourselves out of debt. And... AND.... people camping out for the Playstation 3 release were wounded in a DRIVE-BY SHOOTING!! Can you imagine?!?! Was this in the Bronx or in Compton? Heck no, friends... it was in Lexington, Kentucky. KENTUCKY!!

(sigh)

This bothers me, really. I know I'm part of all this... of that I'm not ignorant. But there are days that we all, nationally, need to unplug. No internet, no cable/satellite tv... maybe just a radio... and everyone just gets together and does something... builds a community basketball court or has a community basketball game... Has a town carnival! Cleans-up and restores a vacant lot in their downtown. Feeds the homeless. Maybe everyone should have a pot luck dinner with the neighbors.

A lot of people don't even know their neighbors... as if that's too much of an inconvenience! How can we be a strong nation, a nation that can stand up and be #1 if can't be bothered to say "Hi!" to the people who live 20 feet from us?!

Love your family, support your friends, be a positive part of your community, put your heart into what you do... and then you will be contributing to America being United. Because right now, my friends, we're not. We squabble and squander our time, money and resources over the most ridiculous, petty B.S. I've ever seen. And because of that, we are falling behind.

"Oh, the Asians are actually smarter than us. They test better on IQ tests," someone once said to me. Frankly, I think that's a big load of festering dog crap. Maybe they do score better on those tests, but is that an excuse for us to lay down and put up with being #2 and #3? WTF does that have to do with anything anyway? In high school I scored a little above average on my SAT (1140) and pretty damn high (32) on my ACT. Tests aren't consistent, so what's the point? I still have been the boss of people who have scored higher than me on the SAT. I excel at my job while they get canned for "meditating" at their desk with their eyes closed.... please...

We have lost our motivation, folks. We are not leading the pack because we forgot how to. We've lost site of what's important. We ARE waiting for everything to come to us because we're the most powerful nation on Earth.

Um, does anyone here remember "The Fall of Roman Empire" or, in fact, does anyone remember more recently (historically speaking) when most of the European nations were imperialistic powers? Now we refer to those countries as "quain" or "cultured" and as great places to take package tours.

I don't want to be part of a package tour. I want to be part of the greatest nation on Earth.

Why is that so hard? I mean we did it once... with fewer people, less techology and less communciational ability... we became #1.

Where's the magic, folks? Where's the passion? Where's the drive? Where's our pride? Do we have to have something else catastrophic happen to get everyone in gear??

Damn...