America is not the greatest country in the World anymore, it could be again if we fix it.

America is not the greatest country in the world anymore from Wonji Dharma on Vimeo.

As we will see later in this post, all the Statements may not be 100% on point, they do however point out that the United States is no longer in a position to say that this is the Greatest Country in the World. And yes all the conservatives reading this most likely will get their panties in a bunch about it. And yes there are numerous videos purporting to disavow any of the claims made in this Fictional Drama; nevertheless, there is a growing malaise which is beginning to eat at the core of this nation. I am not a politician, I am a simple monk who is trying to do no harm, which does not mean keeping my mouth shut about the social injustice which I have seen erode this country since I was a boy. 

My father spent 24 years defending this country while serving in the United States Air Force as a Master Crew Chief on B-52's, you know the ones carrying nuclear bombs. I spent 6 years serving this country in the United States Air Force as a Crew Chief on F-4D's, you know the ones that carried nuclear bombs. 

I have spent the rest of my life in one way or another working on helping others, and also worked in Corporate America at the same time. I am neither Republican, Democrat or Libertarian. I am, first and foremost, a monk who is tired of seeing us create a war on the poor when it used to be a war on poverty in my youth. I am no anti-american, I am a monk who believes in treating everyone with respect, as long as they return it back in the same manner. 

I am sick to death of war, why does everything have to be a war. What happened to negotiation and working towards a common goal? We live in a country divided, it is and has been divided along religious and socioeconomic boundaries. We have a country in chaos, we have people roaming the streets like vigilantes carrying semi-automatic weapons. It is all to make us feel unsafe. We must not give into fear anymore, and we must learn to have a voice that is grounded in love, directed by compassion, and informed by education. This does not allow us to give into hate, violence or aggression; yet, it does not to mean not to defend ourselves with equal fortitude. 

Never give up, never surrender, and remember that it is all good; consequently, there is only one resolve in life and that is to be more loving, please do no harm. - Wonji 

...It's NOT the greatest country in the world, Professor. That's my answer. Fine. Sharon, the NEA is a loser. Yeah, it accounts for a penny out of our paycheck, but he gets to hit you with it anytime he wants. It doesn't cost money. It costs votes. It costs airtime. And column inches. You know why people don't like liberals? Because they lose. If liberals are so fuckin' smart then how come they lose so goddamn always? And with a straight face, you're gonna sit there and tell students that America is so star-spangled awesome that we're the only ones in the world who have freedom? Canada has freedom. Japan has freedom. The U.K. France. Italy. Germany. Spain. Australia. BELGIUM has freedom. Two hundred and seven sovereign states in the world, like, a hundred and eighty of them have freedom....And you, Sorority Girl, just in case you accidentally wander into a voting booth one day, there's some things you should know. One of them is there's absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we're the greatest country in the world. We're seventh in literacy. Twenty-seventh in math. Twenty-second in science. Forty-ninth in life expectancy. A hundred and seventy-eighth in infant mortality. Third in median household income. Number four in labor force and number four in exports. We lead the world in only three categories: Number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real, and defense spending, where we spend more than the next twenty-six countries combined, twenty-five of whom are allies. Now none of this is the fault of a twenty-year-old college student, but you nonetheless are without a doubt a member of the worst, period, generation, period, ever, period. So when you ask what makes us the greatest country in the world, I dunno what the fuck you're talkin' about. Yosemite? Sure used to be. We stood up for what was right. We fought for moral reasons. We passed laws, struck down laws, for moral reasons. We waged wars on poverty, not poor people. We sacrificed. We cared about our neighbors. We put our money where our mouths were. And we never beat our chest. We built great big things, made ungodly technological advances, explored the universe, cured diseases, and we cultivated the world's greatest artists and the world's greatest economy. We reached for the stars. Acted like men. We aspired to intelligence. We didn't belittle it, it didn't make us feel inferior.We didn't identify ourselves by who we voted for in the last election, and we didn't, oh, we didn't scare so easy. Ha. We were able to be all these things and do all these things because we were informed. By great men. Men who were revered. First step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one. America is not the greatest country in the world anymore. Enough?

The following is from http://www.zebrafactcheck.com/

The speech contains a number of statements apparently intended as factual statements.  As the first season of “The Newsroom” features real-life news events borrowed from the 2010 real world, such as the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, we can test the claims against figures in use in 2010.

“Seventh in literacy”

The CIA’s World Factbook has literacy estimates for the nations of the world.  Wikipedia presents those statistics in a form that allows for easy interpretation.  The literacy estimates actually put the U.S. back in the pack numerically, but taking ties into account allows for putting the U.S. at No. 7.  The nations in the top 40 are all pretty close, well above 95 percent literate.  Andorra, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg all report 100 percent literacy.

“Twenty-second in science”

McAvoy’s speech offers few clues about what measure backed this claim.  Scimago Lab ranks the U.S. a clear No. 1 in peer-reviewed science publishing.  A study released in 2010 dealing with 15-year-old students from65 nations placed the U.S. at No. 22 in scholastic science achievement.

“Forty-ninth in life expectancy”

The 2010 CIA World Fact Book ranks the U.S. at No. 49 in life expectancy—if the “European Union” is counted as a country separate from EU members like Germany and Italy.  Puerto Rico came in at No. 43, including the EU.

The World Bank, using a variety of data sources, ranks the U.S. at No. 39 for both 2009 and 2010.

“One hundred seventy-eighth in infant mortality”

The New York Post’s Kyle Smith had a look at this statistic back in June of 2012 and concluded that somebody read the list from the CIA World Factbook upside-down.

We found McAvoy’s exact statistic at a website run by the Center for Youth Studies.  The site refers readers to the CIA World Factbook for more information.  The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel published a story based on the infant mortality rankings from the 2010 version of the World Factbook, and the numbers confirm Smith’s finding that the inverted ranking is 176, not 178, and the list ranks the U.S. at No. 46 when properly read.

“Third in median household income”

Wikipedia’s presentation of  the 2010 numbers from the OECD places the U.S. at No. 4 for median household income.  That’s from a list of 35 countries.

“No. 4 in labor force”

Photius.com shows the U.S. at No. 4 in labor force for 2010, showing the CIA World Factbook for 2010 as its source.  The European Union beats out the U.S. for third place on the list.

“No. 4 in exports”

Photius.com also agrees with McAvoy’s claim about export ranking, placing the U.S. at No. 4, right after Germany, in 2010.

“We lead the world in only three categories.”

The U.S. leads the world in quite a few categories, including defense spending, largest economy, highest number of annual immigrants, and best higher-education system.

“Number of incarcerated citizens per capita”

Allcountries.com, using information from the United Nations Development Program, ranked the U.S. No. 1 in incarcerations per capita.  The list carried the disclaimer “Because of differences in legal definitions, data are not strictly comparable across countries.”

“Number of adults who believe angels are real”

Brazil believes in angels.

We located poll data for only a handful of countries available in 2010.  We also located a number of polls showing that strong majorities in the U.S. believe in angels.  The various polls showed the U.S. ahead of Canada, Australia and Great Britain in belief in angels.  The contest with Italy, relying on data from a scholarly paper by Franz Hollinger, was too close to call, while that same study showed the U.S. trailing Brazil.

“Defense spending, where we spend more than the next 26 countries combined.  Twenty-five of whom are allies.”

In 2009, The Economist reported that U.S. military spending was highest in the world for 2008, higher than “the next 14 biggest spenders combined.”

For the following year, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute rated the U.S. the top military spender for 2009.  By our calculations, the U.S. spent more than the next 20 biggest spenders combined, but less than the next 21 biggest spenders combined.

SIPRI had not published its rankings of military spending for 2010 during the 2010 calendar year, but for 2010 the numbers again fail to match McAvoy’s claim, with U.S. military spending exceeding that of the next highest 14 nations appearing on the list.

As both China and Russia consistently appear on the lists of biggest military spenders, apparently at least one of them counts as an ally in the reality of “The Newsroom,” considering McAvoy’s claim that 25 of the 26 nations immediately behind the U.S. are allies.  The U.S. has no military alliance with either China or Russia.