We were discussing politics at work the other day (already a bad sign), specifically the recent & numerous crises that have hit Japan, and one of my co-workers voiced the following opinion:
“America has too many problems of it’s own to be helping Japan right now. Don’t get me wrong, my heart goes out to them. But I just think we should try solving our own problems first before we go off spending money helping someone else.”
When I first heard this, I thought my co-worker was being kind of an ass. But I thought about it later and I came to the conclusion that, even if the majority of Americans agree with that statement, that’s not really a stance that America can take these days.
Sure there are probably some other (good?) reasons why America shouldn’t help Japan – but I
First of all, it’s a bad move from a Diplomatic viewpoint. Considering how other countries went out of their way to help us during the Katrina tragedy, not helping Japan during their time of tragedy would do some serious harm to our foreign trade relations.....!
Not to mention cause us to look, as a Nation, like serious dicks.
Secondly, America’s already set a precedent as being the country that helps other countries out. We’ve been “THAT nation” since we got involvedin World War I and haven’t stopped being that “helpful neighbor” ever since. It almost seems like other countries expect us to help when something like this happens.
Incidentally, this also reminded me of the Arizona Immigration issue. I heard someone (else) once use this same point to argue why America shouldn’t allow illegal immigrants to stay in the country. I feel this is a different issue and haven’t quite sorted my thoughts on this one just yet.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
1 comment:
just tell your friends that i donated enough money for both of us!
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