by Denise Murphy

Created on: May 28, 2010   Last Updated: May 29, 2010

When the United States won its freedom from the British rule, our first President George Washington, who is thought of as the father of our country, warned the government and its citizens about tending to our own borders and not poke our noses into foreign affairs.  As America grew into the United States of America, the advice given to us by our first President George Washington was completely forgotten over time. 

Instead we became a nation who suddenly thinks we have to police the rest of the world.  The old saying "With great power comes great responsibility" was taken a bit to zealously.

America morphed into a super power from its humble beginnings and flexed its muscles at the rest of the world.  As a super power many nations look to the Untied States for exporting, importing, financial assistance, military assistance, medical and food assistance and we continued to give until it hurt. 

We gave our youth to two world wars, Korean conflict, Vietnam, the Afghan and the Iraq War not including all the military and American citizens we have lost to terrorism, kidnappings and Somalia.  What did the United States get for its actions in the rest of the world?  Largely we became known as war-mongers.

The United States, once the country many would sacrifice everything to be apart of, has fallen into disrepair.  World peace may finally be attainable as the United States can no longer afford to wage war.  The American dollar has funded many countries before and after wars.  The American dollar has helped rebuild countries after wars are over. 

The United States military has taught other nations how to defend themselves only to have those same weapons pointed back at us when we were no longer needed or valued. 

We have fed nations, helped to heal their sick children, helped build education centers and teach them the value of growing their own crops and clean drinking water, only to have our soldiers attacked, killed and dragged through the streets while the very people we tried to help burn our flag in the streets.

America used to be a country of craftsmen and now we are a nation of importers.  The United States imports goods from other countries and now our citizens are finding that jobs they thought they could rely on, are laying off, closing or moving out of the state or even the country because corporations care more about profit than the American worker. 

The United States has always been a land of surplus and the idea that one day our nation could stumble and possibly fall never crossed most Americans minds.  Crisis after crisis has struck the United States such as the home mortgage crisis that put many American families in the street. 

The stock market has been an unstable indicator of the global economy and many Americans have lost their retirement savings and the government has no assurance that all the years that you paid into the social security fund that your retirement is even secure.

Jobs have been outsourced to other countries.  How many times have you had a call center representative who was in a foreign country?  Why does a United States company have its customer service call center in India?  Until the citizens of the United States realize what is happening to their country and demand that as Americans we need to tend to our own countries problems first, we will continue to drive our great nation further into debt that we can ill afford. 

Our country should take note of our founding father's words and keep our nose out of the internal affairs of other countries unless they become a direct threat to our country.

Learn more about this author, Denise Murphy.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.