When … by D. A. Pratt
When …
was America ever great?
The slogan on the hat
has me wondering …
the hats with the slogan
will soon be buried
in the sands of time –
Shelley’s Ozymandias
comes to mind …
Powerful … yes … but
when was the United States
of America ever great?
What qualifies as greatness?
I guess it’s in the eyes
of the beholders – as usual …
I want to say that Americans
have been “at their best”
from time to time …
definitely … many times …
but not as often as some
would want everyone to believe –
this too is all about perspective …
And Shelley’s Ozymandias
keeps coming to mind …
Rusty Truck 
November 28, 2016 at 10:15 am
You have a point, D. A. No question about that. I sometimes ask what makes America grate instead of great. Having visited Canada, your bailiwick, I found it to be wonderful, Toronto especially, where people of every color and nationality seemed to get along. I’d love to see a comparison of immigration totals between America and Canada. Perhaps greatness is not only in the mind of the beholder but also a matter of degree. Great Britain once was “great,” and Canadians still largely love her but not so much India and a number of other former colonies. I wouldn’t be in America if the English hadn’t imprisoned my IRA father and then expelled him from the country and he chose America instead of Australia. What does America have that Canada does not? It has something, I think, but it is very hard to define. No question you have a point.
November 28, 2016 at 4:25 pm
Hmmmm … in response I could be verbose but I’ll keep this short … with a twinkle in my eye, what America has that Canada does not is location … from location more people … from more people more money … or something like this … I’ll also mention more guns … DaP
November 28, 2016 at 4:42 pm
By Jove, DA, you are right again certainly in terms of location. Although our summers can be brutal I would not trade them for your winters. Although I am not a hunter I respect the right of hunters to own guns and homeowners who keep a gun in case some bum comes through the window at midnight to rob and kill. As you know there is a great effort to take guns away from Americans. I understand that desire as well but the only ones who would lose their guns would be hunters and decent people. Not the crooks, of whom we have many due to poverty and poor education and a lack of jobs. There is no effective way to strip crooks of their guns. I don’t own one but the environment in cities in America today has made me think it might be nice to have in the middle of the night. But I’m not very handy and my wife thinks I might shoot myself in the foot or maybe her while aiming at some crook. Be thankful for the peace you may have in Canada. Don’t know that much about young Trudeau but I remember his father well. Don’t know if the apple fell far from the tree. No doubt brighter than Trump, it probably won’t be too pleasant a conversation when the two meet although the Donald was nice to President Obama, who, it seems to me, is not that different than young Trudeau. If the latter has two terms and Canadians feel about him the way many Americans have come to feel about President Obama, they may elect their own Trump, if there is such an individual in Canada. I do run on, DA, but I’ll shut up now. All the best to you and others up north.
By the way, here is the blog on an anti-Trudeau Canadian who lives way up north. I stumbled upon it and doubt many Canadians agree with her:
http://mrsgaycaswellsays.blogspot.com/
November 28, 2016 at 7:12 pm
I wrote a poem called “I am slowly …” (see “Outlaw Poetry”) that has expressed some of my feelings about former prime minister endured by Canadians between 2006 and 2015 … so we already have had the experience of the very real damage that can be inflicted upon the soul of a place by someone who is ill-suited (in my eyes) to hold office … while the two systems of government are significantly different I have concerns what will befall the USA in the coming years based upon some of the experiences we’ve endured recently … what’s to be written? Btw, I believe that I live in a jurisdiction in Canada that would have voted for the president-elect had this place had the “electoral votes” … this is based on how this place has been voting lately … so I feel like an outsider where I have lived all my life … what’s to be written? DaP (David)