Make America Great Again....
Give Me A Date When America Was Great
The Donald's slogan is "Make
America Great Again." However, it raises an issue of dating. What
particular date is the Donald referencing? He is making the assumption
that we have gone back in time before the present when we were great, as opposed to today.
Therefore, the Donald needs to
give us some dates. Here are some examples in the past century that
America became better than it was prior to these events.
In 2008, we elected Barrack
Obama, our first black president, which was a century and a half since slavery
and the Civil War. That seems like a long time to get great. Then we had blatant segregation
until LBJ became the president.
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was
passed in 2009, which attempted to provide equal pay for women even when their
education, training, and experience were equal. That was the first
attempt at fair pay since Europeans came to America. That seems like a long
time to wait for equality.
In 2010, the Patient Protecting
and Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare, became law. We were the
last country in the Western world to have a universal healthcare program.
Now, there is leadership. If we were great, we should have been the first
to have universal healthcare protection. Actually, Terry Roosevelt tried
to get universal health in 1912. Norway tried also and was
successful. However, Congress refused to go along with Roosevelt.
Nearly a century later, Obama was successful.
Recently, we have finally
attempted to address the issue of gays and lesbians. Being homosexual
isn't a choice nor is it a sin.
Sandra Day O'Connor was appointed
to the Supreme Court in 1981. She was the first female to become a member
of the Supreme Court, a mere two centuries after the founding of the United
States. Now, there is progress. Okay, it is extremely slow progress,
but it is movement in the right direction.
Before LBJ, many blacks were
openly discriminated against regarding where they could live, eat, or even
which drinking fountains they could use. Additionally, many couldn't
vote. Johnson, in the early to the mid-60s got the Civil Rights Act and
the Voting Rights Act passed. Interestingly, that was nearly a century
after the Civil War and two centuries after Jefferson wrote, "all men are
created equal."
America elected our first
Catholic president with the election of John Kennedy in 1961. For some
reason, only Protestants were seen as presidential material until then.
First woman to serve an elected
term in the Senate was in 1932. Only 20 women serve in the Senate today
out of a total of 100 senators. That seems a strange ratio when America's
population is more than 50% female.
Women could vote in a national
election in 1920 after the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which was nearly
a century and a half since the Declaration of Independence was signed.
Okay, Jefferson only said that "all men are created
equal." He apparently forgot to include women.
Teddy Roosevelt was the first
president that truly pushed antitrust laws and was called a trust-buster.
In addition, he was a leader on conservation issues, parks, forests, and game
preserves.
America is moving in the right
direction toward greatness...slowly. However, it has been people like the
Donald who stood in the way. If America were great back whenever, ask a
woman, black, LGBT person, a poor person and/or one who couldn't afford
healthcare. We will continue to move ahead on November 8 when the first
female president is elected. We will make America a better place in which
all Americans are considered equal. I have an idea after the Donald loses
in a landslide in several weeks. He could campaign to Make the Galaxy
Great Again from some distant planet in some distant galaxy from which he can't
tweet.
