America Is Not The Greatest Country In The World

There’s a lot of things about America that are great. Our innovation and ingenuity. Our history of grit and determination. Our free press (getting less free over time but still much better than much of the world). The fact that we have a military that volunteers to risk their lives so the rest of the general public doesn’t have to. All of the individuals and organizations working on a small scale every day, making their corner of the community better. The fact that we’ve eradicated so many diseases that once plagued us (anti vaxxers still trying to ruin that for us, but our science and our medicine have done and continue to do great things.) Sometimes great things happen in America that you’d be hard pressed to find happening anywhere else in the world. It can be an amazing place.

But is America the greatest country in the world? Not in my opinion. The greatest country in the world doesn’t deny its citizens affordable healthcare. The greatest country in the world doesn’t gerrymander its elections and then try to impose democracy on other nations as though we know best. The greatest country in the world doesn’t let law enforcement murder 12 year olds and Walmart shoppers on sight without even so much as looking into changing some policing hiring tactics and policies. The greatest country in the world isn’t held hostage by pharmaceutical lobbies while better and more natural remedies exist for some of our major diseases.

And, most of all, the greatest country in the world doesn’t allow continual, repeated mass shootings, and slaughtering of innocent children, while not only not doing anything about it, but pretending that nothing CAN be done about it. “When nothing happened after Sandy Hook I knew nothing would ever happen” is almost a cliche at this point, but it’s true. And while this problem may never be able to 100% be solved — there will always be people who do bad things, and find ways to do them even when laws make it more challenging — the fact that there is just nothing that can be done is a lie, and it’s a lie that is sponsored by the NRA. Our gun problem is a uniquely American problem, and our unwillingness to look to other countries for guidance or ideas is a uniquely American stubbornness. Innocent people are being killed on a regular basis, and we refuse to even THINK about things we could do differently. Even measures that most gun owners support, because the NRA doesn’t and they’re the ones writing the checks, they don’t happen. I don’t want “thoughts and prayers” — they haven’t gotten us anywhere when it comes to gun violence. I want action. And until the country is willing to take it, I might live in a pretty great country, but I do not live in the greatest country in the world.