United States of Giving

You know, one feature of my personality that I think is a strength is that I don't give a damn what you think about me, how I look, how I dress, or what I believe. When I go to a gathering where everyone is drinking, I proudly get water, soda, or anything without alcohol. When I'm with my daughters, you might just see me skipping along the sidewalk in front of Target and giggling with them at how silly their Dad is. When I am surrounded by self-righteous religious types, I admit that I don't believe in God.

This outlook should extend to our country as well. I am so tired of hearing about how the United States is not donating enough money for this or that, and the recent Tsunami disaster has put me over the edge.

As the top dog on the food chain, the United States takes crap day in and day out from countries around this world that would not even be here in their current form if it was not for the assistance of this “stingy” United States of America.

The United States makes up over 40% of all aid that goes out internationally, on top of which we also have to defend most of the planet!

In addition to the official money the country gives to others, the charities that our citizens belong to, as well as our businesses, dump billions more dollars on top of the official support, and a good part of our citizenry is deployed around the world building homes, drilling wells, providing medical care, and much of this is simple volunteer work.

I am proud to be a citizen of this country. The United States has compassion and gives more then we should for the way we are treated by most of this world. Before you open your mouth about how stingy or arrogant the Untied States is, do some research and a little thought. It's easy to sit and abuse the United States, because they are a huge target.

Like it or not, if the United States retracted back to our shores, recalled all of our military who are dying daily to defend ungrateful nations, kept all of our wealth to spend on nothing but our own poor people, and did not spend a dime to help anyone else, this world would truly be a sad place.

Is this arrogance? No, it's a reality.

I am not so blind as to think that everyone feels this way towards us. Certainly the people we help are immediately thankful, and normally tell us so. Once the need is gone, however, they quickly forget what saved them, and turn on us like a rabid dog.

Why does the United States and its citizens continue to help ungrateful people? Because we simply cannot look the other way when people of this planet are suffering and in need. That is what makes the people of my great country great.

We get abused daily how the United States focuses more on making money then most other nations, rather then distributing their funds to all of their citizens like many other countries do. It's this one thing that makes the United States a great country! It's because of our freedoms, and our ability to make money, that we actually have more money to contribute to helping others then countries who are trying to do this all through government channels.

Freedom enables prosperity to thrive. And a prosperous people want to help others who are living in less fortunate conditions.

Can we help everyone all the time? Unfortunately no. It is sad to think of the billions of dollars that leave this country to help other people in other nations, yet we still have people dying of hunger in our own country. But it's the way things currently are.

One of my favorite lines from a television show (which you may hear me use frequently), is from the old show, “Mork and Mindy”. Mork is still new to the Earth and has found a carton of eggs. Where he is from, eggs fly (I have no idea why). So he takes a few eggs from the carton, throws them into the air and yells, “Fly and be free!” Obviously the eggs splatter on the counter top. Mork says in frustration, “How can I help you if you won't help yourselves?”

The United States cannot help countries unless they also try to help themselves. Iraq is a good example. We are trying to train their people to fight for their own freedom, and to defend it, yet during combat some of them run away. Their voting administrators are all resigning because they are being threatened by the insurgence.

Our soldiers are dying on a daily basis to attempt to bring these people freedom, yet I can only think of the saying from Mork to those unfortunate eggs. “How can we help you if you won't help yourselves?”