"There’s no place like America.".



That one expression seems to codify the popular myth.





Maybe that was true once, but I am not so sure about that today.



In light of the last eight years, America has been transformed.



We don’t have to go much further than what we see with our own eyes….



The housing industry has been crippled; it was the only leg that the economy was standing on and the government ignored its role and its impact on the rest of the economy.



The mortgage market is a disaster. Another million homes went up for foreclosure.

This will not only destroy the home-owner but ruin communities all over America.



More and more what you see are Foreclosure signs up or For Sale signs; this is not a healthy sign for the economy.



More and more, America no longer makes things…..



There is no American TV maker anymore. Zenith, RCA and Magnavox are now owned by Asian companies…..so is the IBM key pad pc.



Our jobs move over the borders.



And to respond, we buy from Wal-Mart which has forced more and more American companies to fold or move, taking their jobs with them.



And still we buy from Wal-Mart reinforcing their message: Buy in China; Sell in America.



They are America’s largest retailer, accounting for more than $400 billion in annual sales.



If you added all of the value of all of the retailers in America, they would not add up to 400 billion dollars.



And Wal-Mart’s purchasing policies have literally forced all of our suppliers overseas, mostly to China.



We import 65 billion dollars more from China than we export.



The Chinese hold nearly one trillion dollars of our debt.



China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and England own America today.



That’s how we are financing a one trillion dollar war; make no mistake about that!



I benefitted from the programs of FDR and the GI Bill.



Although the democrats finally reintroduced the GI Bill, there is nothing left of FDR programs to put America back to work.



The jobs that are available are usually service-oriented and part time. And to the pundits who are trying to tell us they are just as good as manufacturing jobs, be assured that they are lying. Service jobs do not have a multiplier effect on the economy as manufacturing did where one dollar turned into six dollars.



Service sector jobs don’t begin to replace manufacturing jobs despite what they say in the Greening of America.



Those top level “white collar” jobs we were supposed to be heir to have also disappeared to places like India where the workers will strive for one-quarter domestic wages.



Many of us have trained our own replacements because we were “over qualified”==read earning too much—only to have our jobs acquired by special Green Card holders.



To reassert our leadership, we need to have the best education in the world; but the only one’s who do have that kind of access are the one’s who can afford twenty five to thirty thousand dollar a year tuitions.



There is no equal education any more.



The Republicans want to privatize it and the Federal government has focused on No Child Left Behind because of Bush, which only teaches children how to prepare for a known test. It teaches nothing about learning.



To be a top rated Western country, we should have a health care system that we can be proud of; yet, we don’t. We don’t even have a middling health care system. Most of the world’s healthcare systems do not put the burden on the people; ours does.



And most people cannot afford to have a catastrophic illness.



The fact is that in America today, 40 million people do not have access to decent health care.



Worse yet, although we account for 5% of the population, we account for 20% of the pollution. What does that augur for our well being and health in the future?



It signals that we have not seen the half of it.



Our advisors tell us not to drink tap water; we are told not to consume fish more than once a week. Our FDA does not inspect our food. People die because cattle are not inspected. Produce and fruit comes into this country untested. Our pets die from toxic materials in the dog food. Our kids get sick playing with lead-painted toys.



And nobody does anything to correct it.



More and more people are coming down with strange cancers and other health conditions brought on by air and water pollution and neglect.



This is not the America I remember.



When I was young, the air was clear and the water drinkable. Today, you are warned to have your water checked regularly.



At the same time, the coal burning monoliths continue to spout their residues into land and water, heating up the water and contributing to Global Warming and nobody seems to care.



Our representatives don’t respond to our letters and the media seems indifferent to our plight.



No, this is not the America I grew up and it’s not the one I would like to remember.



I’m a Veteran of a Foreign War as was my dad who sacrificed everything to live here and save democracy from the "enemy."



Well, today, for the first time in my life, I am thinking of packing my bags and moving.



If no one is going to do anything to save this country, our Constitution and our Democracy, then it is merely landscape undifferentiated from anywhere else in the world and it would behoove me, or you to look for a home that will see that we don’t die in the streets from malnutrition and neglect and that my kids get a decent break.



I am tired of living in a monarchy where 1% of the population owns more than sixty five percent of its wealth and the top tier five percent own virtually everything. i don't want to live in a country where the executive on the floor earns 400 times an hour what I make.



That's not Democracy; that's a theocracy.



And if that means leaving, so be it.



Les Aaron