S. Kyle Pauly has a very ignorant view of how the world operates. Pauly’s article, “Proud to be an American,” exactly illustrates the naivety that is wrong with this country. Pauly opens her article by stating the problem is that people are “openly speaking their minds about all the horrible ‘atrocities’ in this country” rather than starting the “uniting process.” This is “unhealthy and unproductive” because all it does is incite “anger and hatred.”
Does this mean that the freedom of speech is unproductive? Pauly seems to think that there should be no discussions because according to her there are no problems. Try telling the people in the Sudan something this cute.
Pauly mentions that the complaints most people are expressing, complaints about education and welfare issues, are “probably mostly fueled by the ending of the election.” I’m sorry, but these complaints are decades old because they haven’t been resolved, not due to hype surrounding the election.
Pauly then goes on an optimistically filled charade about how the world is all beer and skittles. She states that most people have access to health care. This isn’t true in the United States, where 12.5 percent of the U.S. population is below the poverty line (35.9 million people) according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Figures are harder to determine internationally, but more than half of the world population has never made a phone call, much less seen a trained physician.
It infuriates me that Pauly brushes off the problem of homelessness in this country, with the cheery advice of “Hey, it could be worse.” The fact that The Daily Cardinal and The Badger Herald both ran front pages stories about homelessness in Dane County on the day Pauly published her article simply shows that Pauly is misinformed on serious local issues.
In terms of education, the United States falls behind nearly every other industrialized country, and this is inexcusable. Yes, the schools in the United States are better than Costa Rica’s, as Pauly states, but U.S. schools are behind nearly every other industrialized country. The truth is that more money is spent building prisons than on education.
Pauly seems to think that everyone takes our status for granted in this country. The very fact that Pauly isn’t cognizant of a lot of these “atrocities” (Pauly’s quotes, not mine) both at home and abroad, simply shows how much she takes everything for granted. It’s disgusting.
True, hollow cynicism doesn’t do us any good, but neither does unwarranted optimism. I won’t even get into reasons why the academic policies at this university are slipping and no longer reflective of a world-renowned institution (policies that Pauly seems to adore simply due to a ranking by U.S. News and World Report). But graduating seniors, please raise your hand if you are satisfied with your education.
Stuart Zehner
