empire state of mind.

Photo courtesy of Hayden Gunter.

Warning: This is wordy.

Last night, I was shaken. 

I was brought to tears. 

     I was in the library after dinner, quickly working on a project so I could go back to the comfort of my room.  That was until one of my friends asked if I wanted to go see a documentary on how the world sees America. 

Documentary? I’m there. 

Convo credit? When does it start?

I was prepared to hear negative.  I knew it was coming.  I didn’t think it would impact me the way it did. 

      The documentary was called The Listening Project.  This group went to 14 different countries asking how these people view our country (this was filmed during the Bush years).  I want to make clear, I do not agree with everything said, but a LOT of it made complete and utter sense.  The people for the most part all had similarities in how they view the U.S.  They view our government and our citizens as two separate entities.  They view the government as corrupt, but the people as caring.  They also view the U.S. as having people who can make a big impact on the world, and a lot of places feel the positive effects of this. 

     What was so hard to watch was not necessarily even the things the people were saying about us.  It was seeing the hurt, despair, conflict, just complete and utter DARKNESS that exists in the world.  Whether this is by the world governments, the citizens, the terrorist groups, whatever it may be, it’s there.  

It isn’t going away. 

I’ve never felt such a strong need to pray in my life. 

Like fall on my knees and pray. 

I couldn’t even settle my mind on what exactly to pray about.  Is it the people who are starving? Is it the people who live in Israel and don’t know if they will make it home without being bombed? Is it the for the governments of the world to become less corrupt and have more wisdom?  I wish I had the answers to these problems, but all I know is that my only answer for now is prayer.  All of this hurt, need, corruption, can only be helped by God.  But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try to make things better.

            Making it better has to begin with education.  So much of the hurt international relations of the world are because of a loss of communication between different cultures.  We have people in government right now who barely passed high school, much less know what it takes to make positive relations between nations.  We need to educate people.  We need to educate ourselves.  How many people even know where half of the countries they wax poetic about on the news actually are?  I’m guilty to a great extent.  If we don’t educate ourselves about other cultures, how can we grow?  One of the biggest punches that this documentary gave was by a girl in Africa.  She was talking on and on about how they loved Americans and American culture; but for all they know about American culture, they would love if we knew things about their culture. 

Guilty.

So guilty.

            Another huge topic was America seeing itself as the world police.  Some countries want us to leave, others wish we would come help.  What are we to do?

            This documentary relates back to a topic that we’ve touched on in every one of my business classes lately: the fall of another great empire. 

America. 

It’s what we’re on track to do. 

     We need to open our eyes.  We’re trying to help the world, but we’re not helping ourselves.  We have a president who is so hell bent on pleasing everyone that we’re crumbling here.  We have to wake up and realize that our own citizens aren’t being educated, fed, clothed.  We’re going to be overtaken soon if we don’t make a change.  And when that happens, what good are we to the rest of the world? What good are we if we’ve been sucked into an economic and social black hole? 

If I get asked this question one. more. time.  I might go insane.

“Wait..you’re a marketing major..and a history minor? Um, how do business and history relate?  That’s weird.”

 HELLO!! WAKE UP?!

     If that were not the common thought process in this country, we might not be in the situation we’re in right now. 

History is bound to repeat itself. 

Guaranteed, tried and true.  Count on it. 

If you don’t know the past, you won’t have a future. 

     There is a potential presidential candidate who all my friends know how I feel about.  He’s sharp, he’s not afraid to tell the truth and what he thinks, and he is admired by a lot of important people on both sides of the aisle.  Most importantly, he is a business man.  This is what we need right now.  We don’t need a politician.  We need someone who knows how to run a budget.  Someone who knows international relations.  Someone who will do more than spend 3 years on the campaign trail while he should be running the country.  You probably know what person I am talking about, but if not, I’ll leave you in suspense.

     This documentary really woke me up, and I really believe that it is something we need to hear.  We are a great country, and I know we’re capable of staying that way.  We’re not just citizens of the United States, however, we are citizens of the world.