Mayor Giuliani

I don't agree with everything he says though I do respect the man. I most definitely agree with him on this portion of his speech:

I get very, very frustrated when I . . . hear certain Americans talk about how difficult the problems we face are, how overwhelming they are, what a dangerous era we live in. I think we've lost perspective. We've always had difficult problems, we've always had great challenges, and we've always lived in danger.

Do we think our parents and our grandparents and our great grandparents didn't live in danger and didn't have difficult problems? Do we think the Second World War was less difficult that our struggle with Islamic terrorism? Do we think that the Great Depression was a less difficult economic struggle for people to face than the struggles we're facing now? Have we entirely lost perspective of the great challenges America has faced in the past and has been able to overcome and overcome brilliantly? I think sometimes we have lost that perspective.

He is so right. So many people are walking around talking about how very bad things are right now without an iota of perspective on what their parents and grand-parents went through. They cry about the cost of health insurance forgetting that until recently, it did not exist. They cry about the price of gas forgetting how expensive it was when Carter was in office. They cry about the war, forgetting the cost of past wars (in money and lives) while at the same time belittling the threats from abroad while also forgetting that there has not been a domestic attack since 9/11.

Yes this country still has problems to solve but blowing the wrong problems out of proportion while ignoring real problems is not an answer. It shows both a lack of perspective and how well our government is doing it primary job (protect the people) that more citizens think global warming is a bigger threat than terrorism. More of this country's citizens expect so much to be handed to them while being so ignorant of the efforts needed to keep things going. They are like little spoiled kids that want it all and want it now without having to face the reality of today's world. Instead of being responsible adults that can weigh an issue and understand that sometimes hard decisions need to be made for the general good or because of bed-rock principles, they would rather take the easy way and do things like picket returning solders or block military shipments using themselves and their kids as human shields.