American Character

Brec.  Amphibolite, Basalt and you are getting into some pretty heavy discussions about character and politics and your comments about the possibility of buying elections is pretty convincing and very frightening I must say.  But I think we need to widen our discussions a little bit and realize that the world is bigger than America and include other countries as well. As far as I'm concerned, overall, the American Character stands tall and well above most other countries in the world. We are the most generous people in history and are always first to help those in need - in our own country and abroad.  Think about earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, and our generous foreign aid to help developed and underdeveloped countries.  It is not the government that does these things. It is the American people who give their hard earned money to help those in need.  I don't see the same thing happening in most other countries.  What I see is self interest with little care about what happens here.  We are going through an economic crisis with layoffs, foreclosures, loss of savings.  Have you heard anyone say, "what can we do to help America?"  No, OPEC responds by saying they'll cut back production to create a scarcity of oil to drive prices up.  Pure self interest with no thought of the impact it will have on the rest of the world.  That's character - or should I say, a lack thereof.  Now, you can get back to politics. I've had my say.