Oh, if only it weren't for the West!
Nightline has become simply absurd. Tonight:
Hit piece on Palin ("controversy" with Letterman consisted of Palin accusing him of being strangely obsessed with her daughter... Wouldn't be newsworthy to repeat what he said, would it?)
Next was something about a couple of Christians taking their message to remote and dangerous parts of the world, and the tone was a bit snarky, in my opinion.
But they outdid themselves with a story about how many people live to be centenarians in Japan. They report that in 1963, there were only 153 people who had reached that milestone. Today there are over 36,000. They spent most of the piece giving the boilerplate soft news profiles of very nice but very old people, and reported many assorted theories, including diet, for the phenomenon. But then, inexplicably, they say it's all at risk... due to us.
Yes, ominous music coupled with shots of Burger King and McDonalds and the warning that all this progress is endangered by the bogeyman of The West. Forgive me, but has Japan become less westernized since 1963? If ancient diets and oil rubs were the keys to long life, why didn't it work before? I don't suppose that a massive economic investment in Japan by the West which helped to all but wipe out poverty had anything to do with it. Nor modern, western medicine. And certainly not the life-shortening products of greedy Big Pharma.
I've come to expect a bit of self-loathing from our media corps. But to get things this skewed, on the Fourth of July no less, is a bit much. Nearly sixty-eight years ago the U.S. was attacked by Japan, sparking a horrible four-year war causing devastation across the Pacific. But after victory, the U.S. did not take over Japan or steal its resources. It committed its own resources to rebuilding it, committed its own resources to defend it in perpetuity, and left it alone to prosper. At what other time in human history has such a thing happened?
I think that it is easy to forget what makes America extraordinary. It's not just our freedom to burn a flag or say unpopular things. Outside our borders, the U.S. has used its power and influence for the good of the world. To those who say broadly that we need to take a hard look in the mirror with regard to our foreign policy transgressions of the past, I say get specific, and let's talk. Take your pick. I'll back it up, and you'll lose. America is a force for good in the world; how about on the Fourth of July, we recognize it?
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