By Nathan Barton

A good friend of mine sent me this article, which readers of her column (to remain anonymous for now) had sent her several times.  I could not find a source, but still want to share my own responses to the claims and the “solutions” presented in the original article.  It is entitled, “Discontented?”
[Editor’s note: If you have a link to this article, please leave it in comments below.]

My comments are in italics, following the quotes from the article.

A Newsweek poll alleged that 67% of Americans are unhappy with the direction the country is headed, and 69% of the country is unhappy with the performance of the president.  In essence, 2/3 of the citizenry just ain’t happy and want a change.

This is not too far off: current (December 2013) poll numbers show as high as 75% unhappy with the nation.  And 65-70% unhappy with the guy living it up in Hawaii and at 1600 PA.

So being the knuckle dragger that I am, I starting thinking, ”What are we so unhappy about?” Is it that we have electricity and running water 24 hours a day, 7 days a week?  Is our unhappiness the result of having air conditioning in the summer and heat in the winter?  Could it be that 95.4% of these unhappy folks have a job?  Maybe it is the ability to walk into a grocery store at any time and see more food in moments than Darfur and Sudan and other war-torn countries have seen in the last year?

Raining on the parade, but who is this person speaking for?  Someone who lives in Soldier Creek or Manderson? (Reservation towns in South Dakota.) There are a LOT of people who are on the verge of losing their running water and electricity each month, if they don’t pay – and often can’t.  And there are many who DON’T have these.  And 95.4% of us have jobs? In whose dream world?  The bogus “official” unemployment rate is 7.3% (92.7% employed) but a lot of people are pointing out the REAL unemployment rate is 30% or close to it which would mean ONLY 70% HAVE jobs.  And what I see in Montezuma County, in Rapid City, in Greeley and Evans, and Denver, looks like it is closer to 30% than 7.3%: 70% not his claimed 95.4%.  And notice, I’m not talking about the Rosebud or Pine Ridge (again, Indian reservations in South Dakota with very high unemployment).

As for grocery stores – well, ignoring what you and I do NOT see at Turtle Creek Crossing store, seeing it and being able to buy it is a big difference. (A tribally-owned grocery store in South Dakota where theft, poor business practices, and a lack of capital mean that 50-80% of the store’s shelves are empty most of the time.) Prices have gone up by 8-10% in the last year, 25% in the last 2-3 years.  And with each storm, each change in regs, I see less and less rapid restocking.  I don’t argue we are much better off than South Sudan or Zimbabwe, but it doesn’t mean that people are not worried, and don’t have a reason to be worried. Actually, if he is looking for good things to not be unhappy about, shouldn’t he have mentioned that at least 47 million of us get enough to eat because of food stamps, paid for by about 10% of us – or the next X generations? (When the old philosophers in the tribes talked about the Seventh Generation, surely they didn’t mean that is how long the taxes should have to be paid for what the Zeroth Generation spent!)

Maybe it is the ability to drive from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean without having to present identification papers as we move through each state?  Or possibly the hundreds of clean and safe motels we would find along the way that provide temporary shelter?  I guess having thousands of restaurants with varying cuisine from around the world is just not good enough.  Or could it be that when we wreck our vehicle, emergency workers show up and provide services to help all involved?  Whether you are rich or poor, they treat your wounds and even, if necessary, send a helicopter to take you to the hospital.

I suppose that 70-80% of travelers (not counting truckers of course, who DO have to present ID papers at EVERY state border) don’t have to, if they are lucky.  But every state now claims that they have the authority to detain and demand ID from EVERY vehicle for EVERY person in the vehicle (including proof that that is really YOUR child or baby).  A police officer just told us yesterday that he has been taught that EVERY traffic stop is a de facto arrest and that if the driver (and passengers) attempt to do ANYthing that they are not specifically given directions to do and permission to do, the officer can use deadly force against them, and can haul them off to jail with NO other reason than that they did not obey him.  And that ANYthing can be searched.  And that is not just within the 100-mile “no Bill of Rights” zone along the borders and around international ports, but everywhere.  I have personally seen hundreds of cars and trucks backed up on an Interstate highway almost 200 miles from the nearest border, in broad daylight while Border Patrol and State Police went “papers please” to every vehicle.  Of course, that is just driving: still more free than trying to take a plane, a train, or a bus, courtesy of TSA.  So I suppose that is a relative blessing.

As for motels and restaurants – again, if you can afford it.  Any wonder more and more people sleep in their cars, maybe in the WalMart parking lot, when they travel?  So they can buy food that they can afford in the WalMart, since the restaurant prices are also going up and up and up.  As for wrecks and medical service and medevac copters – yeah, MOST people. But you and I know that there are a LOT of places where help is hours away, and helicopters are nothing but a TV fantasy.  I remember the woman standing on the side of the road in Wyoming, holding her purse and her (useless) cellphone (no signal) as everything she owned including her retirement home, an RV, burned to the hubs, because it was a thirty-minute trip to a place with a signal, and a 40-minute response time from the fire service. And you and I both know or know of people who could have been saved if a copter had been available or if they had been close enough to a location where a copter could have gone. (Referring to availability of good medical service on South Dakota reservations and other rural areas.)

Perhaps you are one of the 70% of Americans who own a home, or you may be upset with knowing that in the unfortunate case of having a fire, a group of trained firefighters will appear in moments and use top-notch equipment to extinguish the flames, thus saving you, your family and your belongings.  Or if, while at home watching one of your many flat screen TVs, a burglar or prowler intrudes, and an officer equipped with a gun and a bullet-proof vest will come to defend you and your family against attack or loss. This all in the backdrop of a neighborhood free of bombs or militias raping and pillaging the residents – neighborhoods where 90% of teenagers own cell phones and computers.

Now we are going from the “most people” to the totally imaginary.  Firefighters in seconds?  Even in DC or Denver? (Yeah, right, a policeman friend of mine who spent most of his career in Denver says, very sarcastically.) Not where we live:  neighbors in Whispering Pine, our neighborhood, lost their house in a fire several years ago, that was totally engulfed in less than five minutes.  The fire house was a half-mile away and responded in less than 10 minutes (AAAA rating by insurance) and could do nothing.  The cops?  Today, the ones that show up for a burglary in progress (a virtual impossibility) are more likely to shoot you or your dog than the evildoer, in many towns and cities.  Yeah, we don’t have “militia” raping and pillaging our neighborhoods, just cops… especially in poor, minority neighborhoods in the big urban areas.  And there are bombs – just not as many as Mesopotamia or Afghanistan.  But not from lack of trying, and the real reason is possibly that we only have 1-2% Muslims in this country, and many of those are refugees from their fellow Muslims.

How about the complete religious, social and political freedoms we enjoy that are the envy of everyone in the world? Maybe that is what has 67% of U. S. citizens so unhappy.

Complete!  Oh, yeah – Phil Robertson ring a bell?  Or how about the dozens of incidents in the last few weeks: Dallas children can’t give hospitalized vets cards that have “Jesus” or “Christmas” on them?  Churches that are taken to court because they have a billboard with a flag that says “Support our Troops”?  Ron Paul supporters thrown out of state and national conventions, or confined to “free speech” pens.  Five year olds suspended for spraying another student with a water pistol at a bus stop; five year olds suspended for kissing a classmate on the hand (with her permission). Eleven-year-olds disciplined for showing a picture of their daddy, a soldier, because he was carrying a gun! High school seniors arrested for having a multi-tool (with a knife blade) in the glove box of their pickup in the street outside the school parking lot.  A Medal of Honor winner and retired state governor and major general detained (arrested) for having a sharp point on the pin on the back of his Medal at an airport. Teachers fired for telling each other “God bless” or having a Bible on their desk?  Soldiers told in training that Catholics and Evangelicals are terrorists?  National Guard soldiers told that they can’t call their fundraising sports competition a “Christmas” event, just a holiday event.  People that are condemned for ANY criticism of the guy at 1600 PA as being racist?  Envy of the world?  Please.  What universe did this man write this in?

Fact is, we are the largest group of ungrateful, spoiled brats the world has ever seen. No wonder the world loves the U.S., yet has a great disdain for its citizens. They see us for what we are: The most blessed people in the world who do nothing but complain about what we don’t have and what we hate about the country, instead of thanking the good Lord we live here.

Well, I almost agree with that first statement – except that “we” are not the group:  A LOT of Americans are brats – they’ve never grown up, and let us not get started on their parents or schools or government that let them avoid growing up.  But not all of us, by any means: like those volunteer firefighters, and the honest, reliable peace officers that still exist.  And business owners, and the soldiers he talks about later.

Actually, and I realize that we are talking about perceptions here, I’ve heard a LOT more people from other countries that speak very highly of Americans as individuals and families, but disparagingly of the US as a nation, and of the US government.  This guy has it just reversed.  And he also has it reversed about whether we complain or thank God.  (For one thing, it isn’t an either or… my daily at 7 PM prayer for the nation (the idea that you passed on to me) always thanks the Lord for what we have and for our nation but includes a lot of petitions for helping restore what we ONCE had.).  Again, maybe the brats, like the ghetto gangs and the elite liberals only complain and whine and don’t thank God (perhaps because so many of them don’t believe in Him), so I think this writer is dead wrong about most Americans.  But ignoring the problems is NOT the solution, and is NOT coupled with thanking the Lord for our people and our land.