Where Have You Gone, Land of the Free and Home of the Brave?

I'm a little bit worried about my country.  Not for me, I'm pretty sure I'm going to make it.  I'll never have that Jaguar I wanted when I was a teen, I may not even ever own another brand new car, but I'll be all right.

I'm not even worried about the country sinking into not-so-super-power status.  Hey, it happened to the British and Roman empires, and the Brits and Italians seem happy enough.

I'm worried that we feel so entitled and, maybe because of that, so threatened.  We are angered that people might come here from Mexico and take our jobs.  Outraged that people of Moslem faith might build more Mosques than we have churches.  And words cannot express the fear we have, the conviction we have, that no matter how much we own, someone with less will end up with some of it.

Sick people without jobs might end up in the good hospitals with the better doctors because they have gotten better health insurance than us.

Children of the poor might go to the same or even better schools than our children.

They'll take our jobs, our religion, our education, our neighborhoods, our children's inheritance.

So we must build fences, pass laws, have more prisons, deport people.

And keep lowering taxes, so "they" won't be given more of what should belong to us.

What America is this?  The land of the insecure and home of the scared.