What's Wrong With The United States of America?

I hope I don't offend anyone with this entry.
That is NOT my intention.
I just have many questions and observations about Canada's closest ali (sorry, Britain, but it's true).
My observations start with the whole health care issue.
Half the US is against it, while the other half is either 100% for it or undecided about it.
In some ways I can see why people would be against it.
I mean, it's new.
New things are scary.
I get that.
But when every American citizen will be forced to get health insurance, and can't be turned down no matter what, that's a good thing. Isn't it?
I just spent 1 week in the hospital and kept think to myself, "How much would this cost me if I was an American?"
I work at McDonald's.
I can't afford health care bills!
Americans go in debt every day over simple doctor's visits, child birth, and childhood injuries that require stitches.
People avoid the doctors because they can't afford it.
In America...the supposed "LAND OF THE FREE".
That doesn't sound so free to me.
Some people say that the doctors will be ripped off or taxes will increase to pay for all of this.
Okay, let's start with the doctors.
Think about this.....more people have insurance, more people will get the medical treatment that they desperately need but can't afford, insurance companies will then pay out, and that money lines the pockets of the doctors and surgeons. Wouldn't it be win-win then?
And the taxes?
Um, America, I live in Canada....I've heard we pay a crapload more in taxes then you guys, so I doubt your taxes would go up THAT much. lol.
Plus, in the long run, if the poor can get medical treatment, what's a few more dollars out of your pockets? Just stop buying an extra fat-free mocha latte everyday and you'll be fine.
I don't know, maybe my health care system up here in the Great White North has spoiled me.
But I love being able to go to the doctor or stay in a hospital and only have to worry about one thing: getting better.
Don't you guys want that?

And my 2nd observation is the whole same-sex marriage/gay rights debate.
Should this not be simple, cut and dried?
Gays are PEOPLE and shouldn't all PEOPLE be treated fairly, with dignity and respect?
When we're in kindergarten, no, pre-school actually, we're all taught that if we don't have anything nice to say, not to say anything at all. And that lesson is carried through the early elementary grades. But somewhere around 4th or 5th grade those lessons stop, and children forget them.
By middle school, it's all out chaos.
You show up to school wearing the wrong coloured socks and there's some kid ready to jump on you.
For me, high school was a much better place then middle school. We were growing up and learning to respect each other's differences.
But, I know that for many kids, that's not the case.
Kids can be cruel.
They don't need much of a reason to be cruel either, and yet there are adults that give them reasons to ridicule the "uncool" kids.
Like the Mississippy prom issue.
So the girl wanted to take her girlfriend to the prom.
Big whoop!
Girls take girls all the time, that's no reason to cancel the whole damn thing for everybody!
I took a girl to my prom!
But, I guess that's okay 'cause both of us are straight, right?
Geeze.
That school board just made her life more difficult then it probably already was.
The prom was cancelled because of her.
Think of the flack she's going to get from her fellow classmates.
Not all of them, of course, but a good chunk of them.
It's just wrong.
What's so evil and wrong about a girl wanting to share the best moment in a high schooler's life with the person she loves? Who cares if that person is another girl?
I do not understand why the "land of the free" is so afraid of homosexuality.
They go on and on about how great their country is and all the opportunities people have there, and well, it's not all that great.
4 out of 50 States allow same-sex marriage, and the District of Columbia.
FOUR!!
It would be 5 if California hadn't stuck their heads up their asses again and reversed the bill.
I mean, come on, people!!!!
Love is love!!!
Canadian gays, British gays, Dutch gays, and many more of way more rights and freedoms then the majority of American gays.
And yet Americans still think they're so high and mighty!
They need to step off their high horse, forget about finding a bearded terrorist, realize all the injustice that's going on in their OWN country, and fix their country.
The majority of the world hates the United States, perhaps if they fixed themselves internally they would improve how they look externally.

And now on to my observations on the American school system....
I want to be an elementary school teacher.
I want to go to Florida Atlantic University.
And then...I want to stay in Boca and find a job teaching at a local school.
Why?
Because in my school days I was educated about the world outside of my country.
We learned all about our history in elementary school...until we were sick of the fur trade and could say the provinces and their capitals in our sleeps.
Then in middle school we learned all about Peru, Nigeria, Japan, Egypt, Evolution of Man, Europe, Ancient China, the religion of Islam, and mapping skills. And that was in 3 years!
In high school, we spent 3 years learning a more in depth history of our country and then in grade 12, you could choose what you took. I chose History so I learned way too much about Russia and communism (like the fact that the American CIA actually trained Osama Bin Laden during the Russian-Afghanistan War) and other stuff that has now left my brain.
Now, I don't know much about the American school system, but if 11% of American university students can't pick out their own nation on a world map, something's wrong.
Considering the average Canadian 2nd grader can not only pick out Canada on a world map, but also the US and Mexico...since we're all on one continent.
I want to be a teacher in the US to help open children's minds.
I want them to see that a)there's more to the world then just what's in their borders and b)that every human being has the right to be treated with dignity and respect, even if their way of life may seem unusual or even scary to some.
Perhaps, this is too much to ask, or may seem to difficult.
But children, if caught at the right age, will soak up anything you tell them like sponges.
Give them the right knowledge and the world will become a better place for all of us.
And this whole "No Child Left Behind Act", yeah, that should just be a given. The Act itself shouldn't even need to exist.

Now, Canada isn't perfect either.
No country is.
But the United States of America, at least to many outsiders seems to see itself as being perfect, when they are far from it.
Isn't the sucide rate among gay teens one of the highest?
It's 2010!
People should NOT feel they are so horrible for the way they were born that they need to kill themselves.

I love the US, I do.
My friends in Florida are my 2nd family and, like I said, I want to move there.
But the country needs to change.
I guess, more then anything the same-sex marriage debate is what really bothers me.
Having gay friends and all.
And the more I talk to Johnny, and learn about homosexuality, the more I hate what's going on in the US.
The close-minded, Conservative jerks NEED to get out of power.
Religion and State are separate.
This whole "we need to protect the sanctity of marriage" debate is crap.
Marriage hasn't been sacred in YEARS!!
When people can go to Vegas, get drunk, go to a 24 hour wedding chapel, say their vows infront of a bad Elvis impersonator, then get it anulled the next day because they realize what they did, the sanctity is kind of gone.
Then there's the divorce rate.
People get divorced left, right, and centre.
And yet people that actually WANT to get married, and would probably make their marriages last, are denied, just because they're 2 men or 2 women.
And then if a same-sex couple wants kids....
That's another topic I could spend a day and a half on.
But, I'm already rambling on long enough.
I really wish I could fly around the US and pe apart of as many Gay Rights' Marches as possible.
To feel like I'd actually be doing something to help.

I just have to get my feelings out.
Again...
I LOVE THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!!
And it's because I love the country that I feel I can point out its flaws.
Again, Canada isn't perfect, but at least everyone is equal, has access to great medical care, and a good education.
I hope America can sort itself out soon.
For the sake of all the Americans that I hold so closely in my heart!

Thanks for letting me ramble and rant.
That is all I have to say on these particular subjects.
For now anyway.