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God Bless America I was riding my bike home from school the other day when I saw a car with a bumper sticker that read "God Bless America". I certainly had seen and heard this phrase before; it was popular even before 9-11. But after 9-11 it was unavoidable. Before that day on my bike, the phrase had always just slid across my field of vision and slipped past my consciousness, never warranting any deep thought. All I thought was that it was the same as announcing "I’m patriotic" or "I love the country I live in." But this time it struck me differently. I started thinking about what it really means. What is a person really saying when he or she says "God Bless America"? Consulting a dictionary for a definition of "bless" yields "To invoke divine favor upon", "To confer well-being or prosperity on", or "To give social or moral sanction to." Why do so many people think our country needs to be blessed? The first reason and one I hope to be true is that people think of "God Bless America" as a phrase that means something like "I like living the US because of its social, political, and economic philosophies. I enjoy its high standard of living and relative freedom compared to other countries." And when I say that I hope people use it as a phrase, I literally mean phrase. Saying "Son of a gun" in this day and age has nothing to do with sons or guns, it has to do with exclaiming disbelief. I hope that when people say "God Bless America" they mean it as a phrase, they don’t actually wish God to bless America. My reasons for this will become clear in the following paragraphs. If it is not a phrase then many people probably do wish God to actually bless America. And this is exactly what I do not understand. America enjoys the highest standard of living in the world, by almost all measures (1) This is no secret. It seems to me that most people living in the US know that it has a high standard of living. I’ll now interpret, literally, "God Bless America" using the three definitions I found. Using the definition of bless to be "To confer well-being or prosperity on" makes me think Americans must be rather a selfish bunch. Is that person with their bumper sticker asking God to make our standard of living even higher? Is the highest standard of living in the world not high enough? It seems to me that America is one of the last places God should bless. Perhaps first God should bless a poorer country like Ethopia before He blesses America. Ethopia has an infant mortality rate of 95 deaths per thousand live births (2). This rate compares to the United State’s 6.5 deaths per thousand live births. Further, the CIA world fact book states "Ethiopia's poverty-stricken economy is based on agriculture…The agricultural sector suffers from frequent drought and poor cultivation practices" Drought is something many people attribute to God’s will. I sure hope people aren’t wishing God to bless American instead of Ethopia, but that just might be the case. . Perhaps I am using the wrong definition of bless, so I’ll look at another definition. Maybe I should use "To invoke divine favor upon." Unfortunately this definition doesn’t make Americans look much better. Why should God invoke divine favor upon America? Because us poor American’s need the favor so much more than other countries? Clearly this isn’t the case. We are one of the last countries on earth that need a favor from God. Finally, what if the phrase means that God should "To give social or moral sanction to" America’s actions? American’s emit, on a per capita basis, twice as much carbon dioxide as the United Kingdom, more than twice as much carbon dioxide as Japan and more than 3 times as much as France. Not only does this carbon dioxide have deleterious effects on the environment, but it also is using up the finite reserve of fossil fuels available on this earth. Because America’s standard of living is only slightly higher than the three previously mentioned countries which emit less carbon dioxide, That is, America is doing a poor job at converting oil, coal, and natural gas to a high standard of living for its citizens. America is essentially throwing away natural resources that it doesn’t need. Not to mentioned the global warming problem that future generations of humans will have to deal with. Further, America imports 56% of its oil from other countries (3). One might consider this to be stealing from other countries’ citizens, who should have an equal right to use the finite supply of oil so that they too can enjoy the benefits of a modern society. You might reply that we are not stealing oil, we are buying it. Yes, just like we bought Manhatten Island from Native American's for the modern equivalent of $670. (4) Or perhaps it is stealing from the future generations of Americans and non-Americans who will have no oil for their cars, no natural gas for their power plants, and no plastic to keep their foods sanitary. If the user of the phrase understands this, then he or she understands that America’s actions could be morally wrong, but wishes God to think its okay anyway. Why else would one ask for moral sanction? So, is it that users of the phrase think driving a SUV that gets 15 mpg just isn’t enough? They want God to bless America so that we can have even more? 12 mpg, 10mpg, 8mpg? Is that enough? Or do they suspect that it might be morally wrong to drive a 15mpg SUV, and wish God to condone the actions anyways? I ask the reader for input because I am thoroughly baffled. Feel free to email me at kevincockrell@gmail.com with any ideas. (1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_of_living_in_the_United_States (2) http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/et.html (3) http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/brochure/gas04/gasoline.htm (4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan |