Selfish

When did America become so self absorbed and out right selfish? Wait... scratch that. I guess it's not the United States of America that's changed... it's 'Mericuh!

So one of the commercials that aired last night during the Super Bowl has stirred up a lot of controversy today. Coca-Cola had a commercial where 'America the Beautiful' was sang in multiple languages, demonstrating the multi-cultural country we are. There was nothing inappropriate about it. Yet, today there are people up in arms that it wasn't just sung in English. Really??

Now, I'm not going to take the side of 'We're all immigrants to this country' because I don't believe that's true anymore. Generations have been born here, and the mixture of heritages is what has made us the UNITED States of America. While there still are immigrants coming to the country, to say that we all are is reaching. So... for the song to be sung in multiple languages... why is that an issue? It's not our National Anthem. What's wrong with people singing it in another language (or multiple, in this case) - I think that speaks volumes for how people see the US... a beautiful country.

The issue just goes so much deeper, I think. So many people have taken on this 'hic-ish' attitude (for lack of a better term) that has us building a moat around the US and raising a gun at anyone who doesn't speak pure English, whether you've lived here all your live, just moved here, or if you're just visiting. I'm not saying people shouldn't learn English if they plan on taking residency in America, but the kicker is that I've known people to get upset when someone doesn't speak English to them in a foreign country!! In my travels, I'm thrilled to death when someone in a foreign country even speaks broken English... but I sure don't expect it.

It's especially disturbing, as we have slowly been giving our power away as a country. Manufacturing jobs have been moving out of the country, outsourcing of technical helplines has become the norm, and as a whole, we've shown weakness as a country as our economy has gone down the toilet since the turn of the century. What right do we have, as a country, to demand even more from these foreign countries, especially when they have no dependency on us? Or even if we depend on them?? While it's good to be "Proud to be an American" and have a great love for your country, do you not think others feel the same way about theirs?

It goes back to just general issues we seems to have nowadays... just a straight lack of respect. Respect for others, in the form of culture, religion, age, education, etc. The fact that we're bringing up a generation of idiots that think their entitled to everything the guy next door has without working for it. It seriously scares me to think what this country will be like once this 'entitled generation' is actually running things. I'm sure that gets said about every generation... but maybe rightfully so. Look at the decline in this country since the Great Depression era, which is the generation that has been dubbed the Greatest Generation. That generation learned the value of everything... a penny, family, culture, etc. Now, kids are told are told they can have whatever they want... but they don't learn the value of what they want, or even more importantly, what they need.