THE U.S. crises currently abound. Its former president is facing dozens of criminal charges, over a million have died of COVID-19, its national credit rating was just downgraded for a second time in history, one in eight American children go hungry each day, and one in every 30 American children is homeless. Beyond that, American worker wages have been stagnant for the past half-century, and feelings of job insecurity are high. The income required to buy the average single-family home rose from US$82,825 in the first quarter of last year to US$102,557 in 2023’s first quarter. Food prices are at their highest point in decades; household debt is at the highest it’s ever been. USA Today columnist Ingrid Jacques wrote in her recent essay that ignorant younger Americans are less proud of their country and have less faith in its economic system of capitalism than older generations. It is true that millennials and zoomers have less charitable estimations of American history and its economic system as well as a less optimistic outlook on the future. This is a country founded on colonialism, dispossession of indigenous peoples, and slavery. The American military and intelligence agencies have had a share in overthrowing many democracies across the globe. Today’s younger generations may be more connected to their peers in other nations through the internet than previous generations, and thus more informed as to the full extent of the carnage produced by American imperial adventurism. The younger generations’ honest evaluation of the U.S. is a statement of what they value — life, liberty, justice, health, and one another — and that expression lists the things that can and should legitimately unite the country. (Global Times) | 