"It is time that America started winning again"

A Patriot's Opinion

By Jim Snyder

One of Donald Trump’s campaign slogans has been “America needs to start winning again”. And he has promised, if elected, to do just that. I am in full agreement with that statement and think it is time we return to being proud of winning again. While most might think this means militarily it goes much farther than that. Yes, we do need to start winning in the military arena. When was the last time our soldiers were allowed to win a war? Yeah, that’s what I thought. It’s been decades. Our soldiers can’t win due to their hands being tied by politically motivated rules of engagement. But we also need to return to winning and rewarding achievement in our schools and our daily lives. For too long now we have been brainwashed into believing that winning, achievement, and excellence are harmful to the feelings of others. To that I say B.S. Oh, it started innocent enough when they stopped keeping score at ballgames and soccer matches. Then, it progressed into the infamous “Participation Trophy” craze. If I remember correctly, we never got rewarded for just showing up at the ball park. When I grew up, winning and losing were life lessons. Sure losing sucked, but it made us want to win. And the first time you taste that winning victory, you remember. Now, more recently, this denigration of achievement has struck in the classroom. Some schools did away with the “F” on report cards because it may hurt someone’s feelings. I just read a story from North Carolina where a school board voted to stop awarding Valedictorian and Salutatorians beginning in 2018 because they claim they are “unhealthy” for children. Give me a break! If my child went to that school in North Carolina I would be demanding the entire school boards resignations. There is nothing wrong with exceptionalism. But somehow we are being told it’s bad. In business many companies have been forced into this poison fruit as well. Forced by government regulations and unrealistic guidelines a lot of companies have been forced out of business. Business in general has been labelled as mean and hateful for making a profit. Gee I thought that was the reason for starting a business. We have been brainwashed to believe that oil companies and coal companies are bad. Does anyone think our world would be better with no electricity and no gasoline? Like it or not, petroleum products are responsible for more t h a n half of everything we use on a daily basis. The United States of America used to be looked upon as an exceptional country. But, after two dozen so called “apology tours” by the president, we have been branded as somehow being arrogant for thinking we are better than another country. Guess what? We are better than a lot of other countries and we should still be proud of that fact. I have had my fill of all of this political correctness gone wild. We are raising kids to think just showing up is qualifications for a trophy. Guess what buttercup, when they graduate from high school and college they are not going to find many positions for just showing up. The real world is brutal, always has been, always will be. Hiding that fact from our kids and teaching them that mediocre performance is good enough is not helping their self-esteem. It is setting them up for a culture shock that will be much more devastating when they find out that the real world doesn’t that way. If elected I dearly hope Donald Trump can reverse some of the foolishness we have accepted as normal and get this country back to awarding exceptional performance and make winning a good thing again.