Global Law of Nations: “Finally, it should be clear by now that a nation can be no stronger abroad than she is at home.” John F. Kennedy, 1963 (The speech of John Kennedy that was never given.)
Washington, DC -- (ReleaseWire) -- 10/05/2010 -- If John Kennedy were with us today he would ask us to please read the speech he never got to give and to please pay attention to the advice he gives. "What took you so long," he might ask? The quote on the rise and fall of nations is from a speech President John F. Kennedy was to give in Dallas, Texas. The year was 1963 and before he could give the speech, he was assassinated. We found a copy of the lost speech online in the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum.
Throughout history, we find evidence of once powerful nations and wonder, what brought them down? The Roman Empire was weakened first at home before external enemies caused their downfall. Lessons from history point to the need to be strong on the home front to be strong abroad.
Trends in the United States are not favorable on measures of economic strength. The national debt is over 13,442.1 billion, more than double our 2002 debt, according to Wikipedia. Debt to China is over 867.7 billion with China capturing much of our manufacturing. T. Boone Pickens projected that over $10 trillion will be spent on foreign oil in the next 10 years, “one of the greatest transfers of wealth overseas in the history of mankind.”
It was sad to watch ABC news cover job creation programs. The coverage was mostly about charity organizations and retraining programs. The people organizing the charities and retraining were wonderful but where are the jobs workers are training for? One in ten Americans are on food stamps. The welcome bright spot was a positive report on green energy jobs.
U. S. jobs in almost every arena are leaving for countries with lower labor costs. Based on data from the Council on Foreign Relations and Forrester consulting, it is estimated that we have outsourced over 1 million jobs (1,200,000) and lost about 2 million manufacturing jobs. Richard Blake puts the figure closer to 8 million jobs. Neither the United States Congress nor U. S. Government keeps data on outsourced jobs. We think they fear public outrage.
How do we correct the situation? A second quote by John Kennedy in the lost speech was:
“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. “
When our economy declines, our global leadership is threatened. We need to stop hiding data on outsourcing jobs. We need to begin a faster conversion to alternative sources of energy and end the huge transfer of wealth in foreign oil. Once we led the world on nuclear energy but our leadership has slipped away. Though many are working diligently, we have not significantly converted to wind, solar, natural gas and other sources of energy. This conversion would protect our independence, our jobs, and our wealth.
We must learn rapidly in a competitive world and we do not need leaders who hide data. We also do not need to be fighting wars with money borrowed from China.
The over 50ish among us remember Kennedy’s death with sadness. The “lost speech” or “speech that was never given,” brings back the lesson for new generations. Let us accept the challenge to never hide from the truth. To be strong at home, we need to confront and learn from accurate data. If we act, knowing the truth, we will begin to turn our economy around.
John Kennedy wrote, Why England Slept as his senior thesis at Harvard. His thesis probed the question of why England failed to build up arms to oppose Germany until a much alarmed Winston Churchill came to power. Today we seem to be just waking up to the threat of outsourced jobs, outsourced debt and outsourced energy costs. These trends add up to us becoming an outsourced nation and that does not strengthen us at home.
The U. S. Congress currently has very low ratings. More political leaders, media leaders and bloggers committed to end us being an outsourced nation through outsourcing our jobs, wealth and debt could give us hope and help reverse current trends. A Congressional commitment to stop the transfer of jobs, debt and wealth overseas could strengthen us at home and abroad………and improve their ratings with the American people.
Gordon Mercer is international president of Pi Gamma Mu International Honor Society and a professor of political science at Western Carolina University. Marcia Mercer is a writer and columnist. Go to http://9955.hostednr.com to get to our Notes on Quotes Press Room. Views expressed in this column are the views of the authors and do not reflect the views of other organizations. The authors of this column write a column for the Franklin Press in Franklin, North Carolina.