The Real United States of America

The land of the free, home of the brave. Land of equality and freedom.

That's us, right?

Well, that's what our ancestors tried to build for us.

Until we ruined it.

How many vets are homeless and starving on the streets? And yet we sing songs about gallant soldiers going overseas to defend us.

From what?

Starving citizens of another country?

I get it, ISIS is not exactly ideal. So why are we handing them recruits on a silver platter? The more we refuse Muslims what they need—shelter, a safe place to live—the more of them will go to someone who will.

If you don't help your people, and your enemy will, and who do you think your people will follow?

It's that simple.

So here's what our "freedom" looks like:

1. Go to school
2. Do your homework
3. Obey the rules/laws
4. Go to college
5. Get a job
6. Get married/have kids.
7. Retire and die quietly

By the way, college will leave you in debt for the rest of your life. Oh, and only two political parties matter, if you vote for anyone you actually believe in, your vote won't matter.

And you have to worship celebrities even if they've never really done anything but be rich and start fights with other rich celebrities.

And you have to cheer for certain sports teams based on their stats/where you live, and you have to be willing to spill the blood of anyone cheering for a rival team.

You have to hate anything that's "not American enough" and proudly display flags and eagles everywhere.

And defend our government even though the politicians our politicians elected to give them tax breaks are the ones ruining us and leaving us in uneducated poverty.

But oh yeah, we're not educated enough to realize that. So we keep electing the same exact officials from the same exact parties every election season. Smart, right?

The top percent of wealthy people have all the tech that makes us a first-world country, but the majority of us live in third-world conditions.

And we can't say anything against our president even when he openly admits to assaulting some of us just because he's rich and he can. Even though he's blundering his way through this and showing the entire world proof of what they already knew—that we're just obnoxious kids of greater ancestry.

Don't like this description?

Here's my challenge to you—to us, as a country:

1. Support education for all it's worth
2. Pay off all our damn debts
3. Eliminate poverty. Give the homeless jobs building homes and communities for themselves. Hint hint two birds with one stone.
4. Lock away criminals rather than addicts with no other hope in life.
5. Lock up the addicts in rehab—only let them out if they get better
6. The fact that people wear jewelry telling people "If I'm dying on the street don't try to save me because I can't afford it" needs to end. That's pathetic. Hello third world status.
7. Stop fighting the wrong wars. Seriously. We don't need to solve everyone's problems for them, especially if they don't want our help.
8. Learn to respect other cultures/lifestyles. Not everyone needs to live like us. Having a bunch of unique places to go is a gift, not a curse.
9. Stop glorifying the past, and instead focus on building a glorious future.
10. The Golden Rule: Treat others how you want to be treated.

Did I miss anything? (I'm sure I did, but here's a start)