You know what really pisses me off? The fact that you, Umair, write essentially the same hit piece on Americans again and again, change a few sentences around, and people eat it up. You never offer statistics to support your claims. Apparently, Americans are horrible is all you need to say and a lot of folks go “yes they/we are.” You say you’ve been all over the world but it seems like maybe you never stay in one place long enough to really get a feel for what’s going on. You generalize about people like a 10-year-old.
You’re making money off other people’s desire to make America the scapegoat for everything that’s wrong. We certainly have our problems, but your broad brush condemnation of our people in general is unjust and inhumane. You are presenting a warped view of Americans to people around the world, possibly inspiring terrorists. Shame on you.
Every time there is a disaster in this country or anywhere else in the world, Americans are among the first to respond. You blame capitalism for our heartlessness, but many of our businesses have donated goods, services, and money to help others. Corporations also donate billions to charities.
I was in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in California. Levi Strauss donated truckloads of clothing to the homeless. Budweiser maker Anheuser-Busch put water in cans instead of beer and gave it away. I thought that was a one off, but since 1988, they have teamed with the American Red Cross to provide emergency drinking water, 86 million cans to date.
Every year approximately 25% of American adults participate in volunteer charity work amounting to over 8 billion hours a year. These so-called selfish, cruel Americans donated over $249 billion to charity in 2019. In four of the last five years, charitable giving by individuals has grown.
Some, including former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, are regular volunteers for Habitat for Humanity, building homes for homeless people. They don’t just give money or encourage support. They physically work with the building crew. When was the last time you spent a weekend wielding a hammer so some stranger’s family had a roof over their heads?
Look at GoFund me. Although the need for people to raise money to help with medical services is a condemnation of our terrible healthcare model, what you also see is millions of people helping out others, some of whom are complete strangers. These campaigns are frequently started by friends, neighbors, and people in what you call non-existent communities.
When my friend’s house caught fire, her neighbor busted in the door and carried her near lifeless body to safety. I devoted the next year to helping her recover and rebuild, giving her a place to live for over seven months, helping her deal with the insurance company, and giving her a shoulder to cry on. She had just lost her husband the year before and her beloved dog died in the fire.
Some of the reluctance to help a person in distress on the street is because of scam artists and thieves who set up a situation and then rob or sue the person trying to help. Americans are under no legal obligation to help someone in distress, but may be held responsible if their attempt to help has negative consequences.
My husband went out to help a man who had fallen in the street and he turned out to be a person having a psychotic episode. He attacked my husband who had to struggle to get away from him. If my husband’s attempt to assist had resulted in his assailant’s injury or death we could have been sued for everything we owned.
There have been several instances in recent years where a concerned citizen calling 911 when seeing someone in distress has resulted in that person being shot by or dying in police custody. How would you feel if you were the person who called 911 on Elijah McClain or Mario Gonzalez? They were just trying to help and got someone killed.
So, I suggest you do some real fact finding, and stop trying to make Americans seem like monsters. We’re no worse nor better than any people on Earth. We’re not the only ones with corruption in government, high crime, inadequate healthcare, and unjust application of laws. Unlike the Taliban, however, most of our military personnel don’t need to be kept separate from women until they can be taught how to treat them with a modicum of respect. Where’s your hit piece on Afghanistan?
