For America to be great, we need to admit when we're not

One of the issues I've always had with our society is our incessant need to be No. 1, or the best at everything, and conversely, the hate that comes at people who bring up the fact that we're not the best at ANYTHING, or at least anything of which to be proud.

Take our educational system, for instance: When I went to high school, I had some great teachers, but even then there were significant issues, especially if, like me, you happened to have any kind of disability. Now, they were relatively sensible about dealing with my issues, but mine were easy to see; what about those whose conditions are not so visible? There are tons of anecdotes online about parents having to go to extraordinary lengths to get help for their children, and oftentimes, they had to go through many trials before finding the right person or system to help that child. In a country as supposedly rich as ours, that's not just wrong: it's IMMORAL.

That's just ONE situation, however — there's also our infrastructure. It's crumbling all over the place. More than a decade ago, a bridge in Minnesota, I believe in the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis/St. Paul, collapsed. Since then, there have been many other collapses of all kinds, train derailments, and similar incidents that show how dangerous our infrastructure has become, and therefore, needs to be fixed, and that's not including the blackout that occurred almost a half-decade BEFORE that bridge collapse.

What about work/life balance? There have been many studies done about how stress affects health, and conversely, the lack of free time workers have with their families. It's strange to me how we're supposedly the hardest workers in the world, yet we get the least amount of time to rid ourselves of that stress, to enjoy our kids, our families and friends. For some reason, we generally don't get to enjoy those we're doing all this for, yet we're supposed to enjoy our jobs knowing that? That makes no logical sense.

That, of course, ties into our healthcare system. Question: Why is it that something that EVERYONE NEEDS to stay alive is put up for sale, like cookies or toys? Here's a newsflash for you: there are relatively few things people really NEED (food,shelter, clothing); healthcare is one of those things, and unlike the others mentioned, it's one of only two that are wildly out of bounds of the cost-benefit analysis scenario (higher education being the other).

The reason I bring all these up is because as much as I criticize America, I do love my country; I just think it should be TONS better than it is, and one of the reasons I see for why it isn't is its inability to face the fact that it has horrible flaws. If we're able to be self-critical, we could look at our issues in a way that enables us to see how we could make them better, instead of beating our chests and either pointing out where we're better (or the best) or showing why somewhere else might be worse.

One of the best things about America has always been our indomitable spirit; it brought us together in many different periods, from 9/11 to World War ll and others. I don't understand why we can't do that now to make the country better for everyone. Have we truly gone so far as to make that impossible? I hope not; I think our country's future depends on it.

Michael Jenkins lives in Springfield.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: For America to be great, we need to admit when we're not