"Jay Honeck" wrote in news:nQhid.53372$R05.50592
@attbi_s53:

To live in a country where, by design, our leaders come and go,
instead of sticking around and really doing damage. What a privilege
eh? I'll bet there are millions of people around the world who would
literally give their left arm to take my place, or anybody's place in
this group.

Well put, Bob!

We do, indeed, live in wondrous times, and in a wonderful country.

Yes, but those wonderous times have a strong correlation with the economic
indicators. Ask almost anyone from India why they would like to move to the
U.S. It is not because of our democracy, religious tolerance. racial
tolerance, or social values. It is because of money. In almost every other
measure of an advanced society, we fall seriously behind countries like
Canada and western Europe. There are scholars who believe that our voting
system is worse than in some third world countries. Yes, we live in a great
country, but we need to understand why we are so great, and fix the areas
that are not so great. Despite all our greatness, we too can make mistakes.
What separates the men from the boys is the ability to admit when a mistake
is made, and take steps to fix it. Just blindly cheering that we are a
great country despite all the mistakes we continue to make is why the rest
of the world think we are so arrogant and ignorant.