Is America really so great anymore?

Don Ellis, Henderson

Friday, Nov. 1, 2013 | 2:02 a.m.

Every time I read the newspaper or hear TV comments that America is the best country in the world, I ask myself, “What is the basis of this thinking?”

I will admit I am far from being a world gadabout, but there are interesting scenarios that could tweak anyone’s mentality.

Is this adage a way for politicos to bolster their agendas? Is the phrase repeated so often that it has brainwashed the thought process of 99 percent of us?

How can we prove that we are the greatest country in the world?

Is it because we have more guns and ammunition per person that kill more innocent people daily than other countries?

Is it because many of us fight the desire to fix severely a broken health care system with any upgrade that can possibly protect all of us sometime in the future?

Is it because we have a democracy that allows a portion of our government that was elected by a minority to dictate to the majority?

Democracy is a great foundation if it is a true democracy. That would make us the greatest country in the world, but we have fallen far from what our founders prescribed.

One of our greatest accomplishments has been the abolishment of slavery. Some of the others are safeguards that help ease the pain of poverty, but we have folks and corporations that are trying to crush these achievements.

Every country has pitfalls, but we have generated more of these idiotic pitfalls over the past few decades than other countries. We have tried to make our homeland safe for all, but sticking our nose in other folks’ business and bombing them is not what we should be about.

We do not have a democracy. We have a bitterly divided country that other countries laugh at.