American twilight

On my way to work every day, I pass Kirby World Academy.  In days of old it was known as the mundane Kirby Junior High School, but since becoming part of the International Baccalaureate, it's now in the business of

...develop(ing) inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.

And that, in a modest nutshell, is why our nation has seen its better days.

You see, when KWA was KJHS, we did have intercultural understanding and respect.  The Brits were our allies.  They had lousy food, drab fashion, brutish sports fans, but great comedy.  They also had developed a greater respect for the rights of its citizens after a couple of thumps on the nose 200-ish years ago.  Great allies.  Do I think we should import all of Brittany into America.  NO!

The Soviets were not our allies.  They had lousy food, drab fashion, brutish female weight lifters, and no comedy.  They had zero respect for the individual citizen so we stood nose-to-nose with them for over forty years.  We were the only nation that had the cast-iron steelies and the muscle to stand up to them.  An evil foe.  A real foe.  Rocky Balboa and Ivan Drago.  Did anybody in their right mind think it would be great to import anything Soviet into America?  NO!  Okay, the Berkley professors thought it would be jiggy and a few whacks in Madison, Wisconsin, but most folks knew Stalin was no hero.

Why this "We are the World" silliness now? 

1. Why, when they remade Superman, would the director/producers have Perry White, the editor of the Daily Planet, say that the man in blue tights fought for "truth, justice, and all that stuff" purposefully omitting the American way?
2. Why are we willing to allow the rabble of Mexico to pour over our borders?  Why, if there are procedures in place to become a citizen of this nation, do we not uphold those procedures for those crossing along Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, but we do so for Europeans, Africans, and Asians (and the occasional Pakistani with deep affections for Times Square)?  For the former, it's like walking into Wal-Mart.  For the latter, like walking into the White House.
3. Why is English not our national language?
4. Why do we hesitate in indicting Islam as causal behind the preponderance of barbarous attrocities committed against our people from within and without over the last thirty years?
5. Why do we cow to groups that demand we remove the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost from public life?
6. Why do our movie stars smoke cigars with men who loathe our nation, yet we still throw dollar after dollar at them to see their movies?
7. Why will our president bow to every heinous world leader that he comes across yet sticks his finger in the face of the one leader in Southwest Asia who fights for the rights of his people to live in freedom?
8. Why will we arrest a student for wearing a shirt with a flag on it during Cinco de Mayo?  (See #3 above)
9. Why does a reporter lament that the Times-Square terrorist had Islamic ties?  (See #4 above)

If I delay getting this thing posted any longer, I'll have thirty-seven reasons listed as the news continues to give me reason to shake my head.

So what's the deal?  Why the insanity?  Might I suggest the same reason that Kirby Junior High School is now Kirby World Academy. I believe that the sun has set upon our nation.

Yes, we still sing the National Anthem at ball games.  Yes, we still fly the flag.  No, I don't think our borders will change in the foreseeable future.  But for all intents and purposes, the United States is fading into the darkness.

Thomas Friedman's cogent work, "The World is Flat," put the spotlight on the globalization of economies.  Companies hold little national allegiance; they want to turn a profit.

With the liberalization of primary and secondary education, pledging allegiance has become passe'.  Few have any idea what "civics" is.  God has been expelled. 

America?  What is it?

As we move further down the calendar from when we used the Constitution as a governmental boundary, the three branches of government have oozed beyond their constitutional delineation to such a degree that they hold little resemblance to their nineteenth century predecessors.  The Supreme Court considers international law.  Our legislators tack micro laws onto other laws creating a product so enormous that the average citizen has no idea what the law itself states.  Our presidents, starting long before President Obama, have reached outside of their playground to grant themselves greater latitude with the military, the economy, and international policy.  No, this is NOT George Washington's government.  It's not even FDR's government, and he arguably did the most to raze the constitutional barricades.

I don't want to be France.  I don't want to be Mexico.  As much as I like the geography, I don't even want to be Canada.  I long for an America founded upon the rule of law given by the Creator and governed by a Constitution framed by that Law.  I long for a citizenry informed about our heritage and proud to be an American, not proud to be an American because it's the right thing to say but proud to be an American because what we are and what we stand for is so vastly different from anything there is out there in the world.

The propogation of Kirby World Academies highlights the indifference many in our nation already have toward what it meant to be an American.

Please tell me where I am wrong.  Please.  I would love to believe that the Red, White, and Blue has not become a dingy gray but every indicator seems to point toward a shop that long ago closed its doors.