ok,what HAS america done?

[Bammx2]

Please,enlighten me!

Since I live here in the UK and there is a such a huge influx of foriegn nationals in such a small concentrated area,all I hear 90% percent of the time,is how "bad" and "evil" america is...
Can someone give me some kind of facts (or stats) on anything america has done for the good of people?
Most people seem to be harping on "stats" about how bad we are, based on our "president".
Most people ONLY know about the war in iraq (mostly due to self-imposed ignorance) and don't look at the other things we may do for good.
They seem to concentrate on trivial things like.. gay marriage, for example.
Has anyone seen the protestors to the contrary?! LOADS more than the ones denying it!
What about the war protestors? LOADS more than the ones who support it!
How much did the US send to the tsunami relief fund? Did these "learned" ones EVEN know we contributed?! Doubtful. Or did even care to acknowledge we did something good? Here in the UK,thats was a major bragging point...how they donated more than any other country on the planet...did they?
And for the record....continueing to send money AFTER they said they had more money than needed..doesn't count.
How many of us are actually raising high hell to get free medical for the masses?!
I used to volunteer for "habitats for humanity"...anyone remember them?
A lot of these judgements are made by people who have never even considered stepping foot on american soil,let alone consider looking past G DUBYA as a true representative of our country.
NO organisation,be it democrat,republican,green party or new reform,can ever be a true representative of the countries people.
Just like tony blair is no more a true representative of the british people than I am.(and I'm a hick from tarheel country!)
For those of you who are more web savy than I,please throw me a bone here!
Can anyone give me proof that we have done good things for the world? Even as we speak?!
I think thats far more important than how many countries our government can invade in "our name",don't you?

 

[Ceicei]

You've made a similar thread in http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=23020 when you were venting your thoughts.

With this post now about America and what "we did", are you seeking "hard evidence"? You've mentioned so many things in your post, it is going to be difficult to have a discussion covering all of these at the same time. If we break them down, it would be easier, just not in the context of one thread. Many of those issues are already covered in other threads that were narrowed down to enable discussion.

- Ceicei

 

[Bammx2]

Ok....break them down as you see fit.

People seem to be able to throw up stats on gun violence,drug abuse,"wars" we have no business in....etc.
Throw up some stats we have had done good in.
How many tree's have we planted around the world? how many cities have we helped to rebuild?
What have we done on a global level?
Anything.
I know what my family has done in onslow county.I know what my friends have done in franklin county.
But thats not the world.
My last post was venting towards people who can ONLY point out the bad things...even statistically.
Yes...I am seeking "hard evidence". Every other country on the planet seems to have all the good stuff to prove about themselves and all the bad stuff about us.
If there is other threads proving answers my questions...then put those up!
I know I have only been here in MAT for about a year,but I have never seen a single stat saying anything about international humanitarian effort.
As far as all the stuff I mentioned,it was to give a little more free reign than just "how many tree's did we plant some where"?
That would be short list!

I do thank you Ceicei for bringing this to my attention,but in my head...I worded it just fine.Or at least the best I could do at 2 am with one eye closed

I'll make a better effort next time!

So c'mon....enlighten me.
so I can enlighten others.

 

[Ceicei]

What I would suggest is create *one thread per issue*. Start one about Gun Violence, start another about Tsunami Aid, etc. You will more likely receive better feedback that way getting the resources you seek and possibly generate discussion. Just an idea.

- Ceicei

 

[Phoenix44]

Can someone give me some kind of facts (or stats) on anything america has done for the good of people?

Well, for one thing, we helped save Europe's *** more than once in the past 100 years.

 

[FearlessFreep]

The difficulty along these lines is that Americans tend to be very individualistic in the things they do. They don't want to pay high taxes and have the government give out money, but most will give out money to specific concerns at a personal level. A good example is my church. We've been sending both money and workers to El Salvador to rebuild homes for several years now. To the people there, it matters a lot that it's done, but not how it's done. But that's hard to track as a stat anywhere. That kinda stuff happens a lot. Some disaster happens and the governments will give money but people will give to churches to help out and have benefit concerts and bake sales and whatnot. So how is all that stuff statistically tracked?

 

[oldnewbie]

Here is a website I found after a couple of trys on Google.
It's a starting place.

http://www.answers.com/topic/list-of-u-s-foreign-interventions-since-1945

 

[heretic888]

Well, for one thing, we helped save Europe's *** more than once in the past 100 years.

HAH! Nicely put. :asian: :asian:

 

[Phoenix44]

You want examples: The NYC Dept of Health treats immigrants from all over the world at no charge. The NYC Dept of Education educates immigrant children, with multilingual programs, at no charge. We treat and educate disabled immigrant kids at no charge. And despite the fact that we have racism and prejudice here, it doesn't compare to the racism in parts of Europe and Asia. If the 9/11 terrorists hit the French parliament building, they'd have burned the mosques to the ground all over France. Anti-Semitism is rampant in Europe, where synagogues are defaced on a regular basis; that's rare here. When Israeli relief workers went to Sumatra to aid the tsunami victims, they were sent away, because they were Jews. We exhibit tolerance, even now, to a degree not seen elsewhere. We also accept political refugees.

How come people from Pakistan, India, Central America, the Arab countries, Russia, Africa, Uzbekistan emigrate to the US? I'm not seeing a lot of native born Americans emigrating to Pakistan--or even to Germany. (Although there may be an exodus to Canada in the near future if things continue as they are).

Who forgot about Habitat for Humanity? It's one of my favorite charities, and one of my retired friends is preparing to go to Sri Lanka with Habitat next summer. Amnesty International? ACLU? American Red Cross?

The American Red Cross had to ask people to STOP sending tsunami relief donations--that's how much the American people contributed.

In my opinion, America, as a country, is going through a very selfish, belligerant, corrupt and ugly period. But to say that the American people don't offer anything to the world in unfair and untrue.

 

[FearlessFreep]

Alluded to in what I said before in terms of donations is that there is a big difference between what the American government often does and what the American people often do.

That being said, there are a lot of people here from a lot of backgrounds. Saying anything about them collectively other than "they are American citizens" is likely to be too simplistic to be useful

 

[Bammx2]

Thank you.


Ya know,I like the idea of ANYONE to take it upon themselves to do something goog for the world without having to have "big brothers" approval.
Which,honestly,is what I see these onther countries doin.
People put there hard earned time and money into helping others and some politican taking credit for it.
One thing I would like to add from my own personal expierience about "free medical" that so many other countries harp on that america "doesn't" have.
I know for a FACT we DO have free medical....the AMA just doesn't want to advertise it and even more so...they don't want to even acknowledge it.
But it IS available! Nation wide!

But thank you all who replied!

 

[rmcrobertson]

Uh...sorry, but back when I was a kid, I was basically taught that grownups didn't go around patting themselves on the back and expecting everybody to tell them how nifty they were every five minutes.

For me, pride in my country rests on knowing all the great stuff--as well as knowing that we are willing to look clearly at what's broke and wrong, and that we're willing to try to fix it.

It sure doesn't rest on complaining because somebody, for example, starts teaching American history accurately for a change.

 

[OUMoose]

I know for a FACT we DO have free medical....the AMA just doesn't want to advertise it and even more so...they don't want to even acknowledge it.
But it IS available! Nation wide!

You're kidding, right? Yes, it's available, and WIDELY advertised around here. However, not in the sense that "Oh ya, you can come get your head fixed for free". More the "See how good we are to the community?? We gave X million dollars in charity healthcare last year to poverty stricken people!! LOVE US!!! LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE US!!!" approach. :idunno:

 

[rmcrobertson]

Boy, and I thought that I was gonna get yelled at here! You are so in trouble for telling the truth...

 

[Bammx2]

You're kidding, right? Yes, it's available, and WIDELY advertised around here. However, not in the sense that "Oh ya, you can come get your head fixed for free". More the "See how good we are to the community?? We gave X million dollars in charity healthcare last year to poverty stricken people!! LOVE US!!! LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE US!!!" approach. :idunno:

uh no...I ain't kidding.
I had to go to Mt Carmel west...in columbus..... and couldn't pay.
The attitude I got when I told them that!
I was ctually insulted.Verbally!
and no...it wasn't posted anywhere.
Gee...things have changed back home.....

 

[Bammx2]

Boy, and I thought that I was gonna get yelled at here! You are so in trouble for telling the truth...

:uhyeah:

 

[OUMoose]

uh no...I ain't kidding.
I had to go to Mt Carmel west...in columbus..... and couldn't pay.
The attitude I got when I told them that!
I was ctually insulted.Verbally!
and no...it wasn't posted anywhere.
Gee...things have changed back home.....

Really? From Mt. Carmel? I'm kind of surprised by that... hmmm.. we can continue that discussion in PMs if you like.

 

[TonyM.]

...and the pot said to the kettle, "Your black."