I have heard many times that most of the people in the rest of the world dislike Americans and think all (or at least most) Americans are stupid. Not to mention the large group of people in America that share that opinion. While I can see that the general public often appears to lack “common sense” and “common knowledge,” this doesn’t apply to the United States any more than it does to any other part of the world. And if you people think we’re so stupid, explain all the technology you use on a daily basis that wouldn’t exist without the work and great minds of Americans.

I’m talking about things like:

• The light bulb – Thomas Edison, 1880.
• The telephone – Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Thomas A. Watson, and Elisha Gray, 1876. Although Bell was born in Scotland, most of his work on the telephone was done with the help of the three aforementioned Americans in Boston.
• The airplane – Wright Brothers, 1903.
• The active-matrix LCD – T. Peter Brody, 1972.
• The microprocessor – Intel, Texas Instruments, General Instrument, and Garrett AiResearch (all American companies) all released microprocessors in or around 1971.
• AC long-distance electrical transmission – Nikola Tesla, 1888.
• The transistor – AT&T/Bell Labs, 1947. Just as important, the silicon transistor – Texas Instruments, 1954.
• Duct tape – Permacel/Johnson & Johnson, 1942

And these are just the handful that I could think of.

And what about all the problems that we’ve managed to work through, the amazing infrastructure we’ve built, the aid we’ve given to parts of the world that needed help, the superior strength of our military, and our influence on other governments and groups of people?

I’m not saying we don’t have any problems; that would be ridiculous. What I’m saying is that we have the same problems as everyone else, and I think we usually deal with them very well; it’s only the few that we deal with poorly that get any attention. And I think most of the disgust and dislike towards us stems from jealousy and misunderstanding. There is no doubt in my mind that the United States of America is the greatest nation to live in and try to live a happy and fulfilling life.

“What’s right about America is that although we have a mess of problems, we have great capacity – intellect and resources – to do some thing about them.”

Henry Ford II

“Our American values are not luxuries but necessities, not the salt in our bread, but the bread itself. Our common vision of a free and just society is our greatest source of cohesion at home and strength abroad, greater than the bounty of our material blessings.”

Jimmy Carter

Tags: Politics, Rants