What has America become?

What has America become?

EDITOR:

At a recent gathering of family and friends last holiday weekend, many of us were talking about the current economic situation in America and how it has affected millions of people in this country.

Most of the people at this event had good corporate jobs and haven’t been touched that much yet by the current recession. Some of the people at this gathering had good jobs that dealt with companies overseas and were going very well. When I brought up facts about how major corporations like GM, Packard and other have downsized, moved operations overseas and gotten trillions of dollars out of the government the general attitude was so what.

I was amazed at the arrogance of many of these people. Their attitude was “I am doing very well and screw the rest of the country.” One friend of mine had a son who had just graduated from Youngstown State University with a top engineering degree. I was happy for his son. He was going out of state to do an internship with General Electric and eventually do some work overseas. I was glad for his son, but when I mentioned how sad it was about many of the blue collar jobs that GE has cut out in America he said, “So what?” That is the way it is and we all have to look out for ourselves.

As I rode home from this happy event I wondered about our troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Would I want my son or daughter fighting for Americans who were only worried about themselves and screw the rest of the country? Is America worth fighting for anymore? I honestly don’t know.

GARY GERGEL

Youngstown