THE DISUNITED STATES OF CENTRAL NORTH AMERICA

To influence the world Rome needed its provinces; Spain had to wait until Aragon and Castille united; England needed Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and the Dominions; Germany needed Bismark to unite it. Now, the world needs that part of America that calls itself the United States to be sufficiently united and wealthy to give us NASA and other such noble enterprises as well as accepting the role of honest broker in so many of the world’s immense problems.

In all those nations we call “Western”, societies are relatively free so achieving unity on any particular issue is not easy. China has had amazing success in leaping to the forefront of nations. It has improved living standards for millions but with no hesitation in using brute force to accomplish this. India, on the other hand, has also come a long way in a more relaxed and open society but, unlike clean, prosperous, and modern China, it is a huge mixture of opulence and dire poverty. Relaxing its strong hand, the USSR fell apart, and modern Russia has deemed it necessary to reinstate some harsh measures to reinstate its role in the world. The much-needed European Union still has teething problems but it has given us expensive great projects like CERN and it does provide considerable wisdom in the conduct of local and world affairs.

The United States has created immense problems for itself. Armed Militia Units, wary of government, have increased 200% to 127; its financial foundation is greatly weakened with huge debts to other nations due to living beyond its means for a decade; its political unity has evaporated. After a century of trying, the government, led by Barack and Nancy, has finally brought the USA into the family of nations with universal health care, a process that was started in modern times by Bismark in 1889 with his Old Age and Accident Insurance. Disunity prevented the US from getting the desired single payer, public option, and other goals, but it was a huge step in the right direction, although it does give for-profit insurance companies 32 million new customers. Hopefully this victory will embolden the government into taking bold steps not only to face up to internal problems but to use its strong influence to bring fair and just settlements to many of the world’s problems that beg for remedies that need outside help with no sinister strings attached. This scribe has faith that, in spite of much unfair criticism, the current US leaders can do just that.