65 Years Latter

Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either.” — Albert Einstein

Yesterday a friend of mine sent one of those viral emails that seem to go round and round. This one was entitled “65 Years Latter.” The photos imbedded in the email showed Hiroshima in 1945 after the Atomic Bomb had destroyed the city. Then it showed a series of photos of Hiroshima today with its brilliant neon lights and tall buildings — a real modern metropolis. The third set of photos showed Detroit as it exists today with its abandoned buildings and decaying infrastructure. The photos do not lie, but the context is misleading. The first photo shown below is of Hiroshima, August 1945. The second is Hiroshima today and the third is of Detroit today – 65 years later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I sent this email to a few friends as an illustration of our decaying cities. One friend replied that he was disturbed at the lack of context in which the photos were displayed Evidently he has a Belgian neighbor who continually bad mouths the United States and claims that Europe should be our guiding light. I cannot or will not address this Belgians prejudice and will only say that planes leave for Europe every day.

After reading my friends comments I began to reflect on the email and its message and I too took issue with it. Here is my view of the message in the email.

First of all I don’t think the email is meant to reflect a superiority of the Japanese. After all we put a great deal of money into rebuilding Japan after WWII. I see it more of a comparison of what we do with the money. We have poured billions into cities like Detroit for the past 50 years. We have built public housing that turned to slums soon after he were opened. We have supported generation after generation with welfare and aid to dependent children only to create more dependent children — mothers having babies out of wedlock and their children and grandchildren doing the same. In essence we have promoted economic serfdom in the urban inner cities with our misguided giveaway policies. All to make liberals and bleeding hearts feel good. We have poured billions down the public education rat hole with declining results. This is what I see in photos.

My friend’s Belgian neighbor is wrong about Europe. We gave them billions under the Marshal Plan and paid for their national defense for the past 65 years through NATO. They too have a welfare system that is going broke. He has no right to brag about anything. We saved Europe in two world wars and then rebuilt the continent and defended them against soviet aggression for 65 years. They are nothing more than client states. Their day of reckoning is upon them. Their multiculturalism, social spending and selfishness are beginning to pay them unwanted and unplanned dividends — all bad.

The Japanese on the other hand took what we gave them and turned it into a plus. They rebuilt their industries, their cities and their society. Every dollar they spent was with practical purpose. They educate their children better than we do and they are not a multicultural society — in fact they are a racist society. I have been to Japan. And most of Europe is racist to some extent. When you scratch the liberal surface skin of a German, Frenchman or Belgian the racist nature of their society will begin to bled through. I have experienced it. (The photo at the left is of he graffiti stained memorial to the Marshal Plan in Frankfurt, Germany)

Let us not forget that once we were a nation like Japan is today. We had Free enterprise, an entrepreneurial spirit and small, unrestrictive government. We built a world class Interstate Highway System where Americans could travel the country with ease and good could be shipped quickly and cheaply. We built a nation where two-thirds of Americans owned their homes with a yard, a garage, car and a picket fence. Very few Japanese or Belgians have the same. In fact my friend’s Belgian neighbor lives in such a house, something you won’t find in Brussels, Liège or Antwerp. We had farms that feed the world and a great manufacturing base. Our R&D was second to none, after all it was our Atomic Bomb that ended WWII and probably saved millions of lives — American, Japanese, British and Russian.

Our problems developed not from the American spirit, but from years of Democratic control of big city governments. Their policies of prostituting themselves to public sector unions and the recipient class so they could maintain their power drove these cities into virtual bankruptcy

Japan and Belgium are not saddled with 18 million illegal aliens who are draining our economy. Their cost to the city of Los Angeles alone is $600 million per year. We have an unsecured border and an immigration policy that is not enforced. No European nation or Japan has such an immigration policy. If you don’t believe me just try to walk into any European county and set up residence. It won’t happen.

Our education system, which used to be second to none, has fallen to that of a developing country. We have schools that are more concerned with security and teachers more concerned with their collective bargaining rights than teaching. We have a union driven tenure system that allows bad and lazy teachers to continue while the good ones have to stand by a keep their mouths shut. They are forced to join unions that collect hundreds of millions of dollars in dues and then use that money to finance the campaigns of Democratic candidates who continue the death spiral of the cities and states where they have power. Japan and Belgium do not have teachers unions to degrade their education systems. Teachers are respected for the professionals they are, not the union tradesmen and women they have become in his nation.

One more thing to remember in this comparison is the millions of Americans who were killed and maimed fighting a war so Japan and Europe could be free and prosperous.