We were proud to be Americans. Fourth of July parades were where to see Cub Scouts to white-haired World War I veterans in uniforms, little girls wearing red, white and blue riding decorated bicycles as big girls strutted in cute little outfits while twirling batons. And then there was the cacophony of the brass band playing patriotic songs in the Bonfield Gazebo. Almost half of all American men of military age served in uniform during World War II, which had ended five years earlier, with us as the winners. Uniforms made it obvious who we were.

We all knew The United States of America was the most powerful nation on earth. Having just won World War II, invented the atomic bomb we were the most militarily powerful nation on earth.

America's main goal was containment of communism. Having funded the Marshall Plan that financed rebuilding of war torn Europe and Asia, having created the United Nations to maintain international peace and security, having led development of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank that insured free trade and freedom of the seas and organized the North America Treaty Organization it was the United States of America that created the seventy year long period of relative peace around the world known as "Pax Americana".

Restoration of normalcy was each family's goal. One of every four Americans lived on a farm. Newspapers and the radio reported "Children are starving in China" while we produced enough food to feed the world. Selling crops, milk, cattle, hogs and eggs provided enough money for farmers to modernize the homestead, buy a car and even buy a three-channel black and white television set.

Being the only major industrial nation to escape wartime devastation resulted in anything "Made in USA" being salable. This translated into jobs for anyone who wanted to work. Labor unions were strong and unionized jobs paid well enough for a city man to support his wife and four children, buy a small house and buy a new car from what he alone earned.

Everyone knew their place. Men worked on a farm, at a trade, job or factory to earn enough money to pay the bills and boys did manly chores. Women cared for the children, house, garden, clothes and linen and prepared three meals a day. Girls helped inside the house. All children walked to school together but girls played feminine games while boys rough-housed and competed in baseball, basketball and football.

The fifties were pivotal and glimpses of equality emerged. Racial prejudice was white person accepted reality with Jim Crow laws still in force in many places. When a decorated black soldier was denied basic accommodation and assaulted on his bus ride home President Truman integrated all branches of the Armed Services in 1949 but that was only a beginning. Emmet Till, who was the same age as me, was brutally murdered in 1955 for having flirted with a white woman making it obvious the shadow of Jim Crow still darkened our sky.

Women having done "men's jobs" during World War II made people a little more open to possibilities and the Women's Rights Movement began. Hundreds of thousands of returning veterans used the GI Bill to attend universities and earn advanced degrees and health insurance benefits became implanted.

Russians were acting up but my family had a bomb shelter and knew nothing they did could hurt us because we lived in The United States of America.

We've lost our swagger. Military jobs are so much more technical and complex today that only one out of three High School Graduates is academically, physically and legally qualified to serve. This, plus fewer Americans wanting to serve, makes it difficult for our Armed Forces to meet enlistment quotas. The United States of America's uniformed services are now completely staffed by highly skilled and motivated volunteers.

Infatuation with military service ended in the sixties when The United States of America became mired in an unpopular and unwinnable war. Young men and women, and many of their parents, revolted when they discovered our leaders were liars who got us enmeshed in what was basically a civil war.

Our soldiers won every battle but having been lied to resulted in loss of the war. Worse, a case could be made that our intervention resulted in loss of a nation with leaders aspiring for democracy, and who shared our distrust of Chinese communists, to Russian supported communists.

What is remarkable is even after attempted nation building in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan proved impossible 60% of all Americans still have great confidence in our military and being an officer is prestigious.

Pax Americana worked. Rebuilding Germany and containing communist expansion resulted in an unprecedented seventy years of peace among major European nations. Rebuilding Japan and enforcing freedom of the seas resulted in free trade and increased prosperity for all Americans until the eighties with the rise of China.

American companies offshored manufacturing to China and other poor nations where factory worker wages were low as a way to decrease production costs. American factories closed, and many blue and white collar employees found themselves in low paid customer service jobs.

That is coming to an end. Russian invasion of Ukraine, and increasing Chinese aggression in Southeast Asia, made very obvious the folly of depending on potentially hostile communist nations to produce goods essential to our national security. Anything we must have here must be mined and manufactured here. Made in America is returning and that feels good.

Family roles evolved with mixed results. While marriage is still the aspirational ideal of most couples 40% of all American children are now born out of wedlock and single parenthood is common. Family structure and socioeconomic status are linked. The 60% of married two-income American families are doing just fine.

It is difficult to live on one income. Nearly 30% of all American single parents live in poverty while just 6% of married couples do. Single parents are also more likely to live in poverty when compared to cohabiting cou-ples, and single mothers are much more likely to be poor than single fathers. This is not progress.

Congress passed The Civil Rights Act in 1964. Discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin are now legally prohibited. After five decades most Americans finally ascribe to the wisdom and morality of equality. Americans actually elected a talented Black man President of the United States of America.

Unfortunately there are still Americans who long for the days of Jim Crow and systemic discrimination is still a problem. In 2020 a white policeman felt free to murder a black man, while being video-taped, because he was confident he could do so with impunity.

Woman's roles are no longer restricted to being a mother, teacher, secretary or nurse. About 60% of all college students are female and women are now represented in most trades, government offices and business and at all administrative levels. For example the majority of Medical students are now female as are about half of all doctorate level astrophysicists.

Religious zealots are determined to enforce obedience to tenets of their religious dogma onto all American women. Their interpretation of religious doctrine is that sex outside of a religiously sanctioned marriage is sinful, that the only justification for sexual relations is procreation, abortion is murder and that the only rational female role is some version of motherhood.

In reality abortion is an essential component of personal and community economic progress. Without ability to control fertility women are dependent upon the will of others which often translates into unfair pay, unequal social power, and higher burdens in the household. Banning abortion is making the United States of America an outlier when it comes to limiting the potential of the female half of this world.

Foreigners see this nation as a paradise and compared too many places it is. Many people who immigrate to the U.S. do it to seek asylum from war and violence. People come here to find a job or have been offered one. This not only helps immigrants build a better life for themselves but also increases this nation's productivity.

Immigrants are needed as field laborers, craftsmen, construction workers and scientists. More immigration means more growth for the economy. This means higher tax revenues and more options for national spending.

Today we are 332 million strong. My father took me to see soon to be President Eisenhower in 1950. I remember him saying "We are now more than 145 million strong." Today we are closer to racial and sexual equality and that is good. The whole nation does better when everyone is able to contribute to the best of their ability

Our post World War II focus on economic development of defeated nations and containment of communism instead of revenge led to seventy years of relative peace. Millions of people around the world including here. While other free nations have grown economically citizens of The United States of America are most free and do have the best economy in the world.