By Kerry Patton
Stand Up America Associate Writer
The United States has sat on top of the world for years as a leading super power. Many countries followed suit especially throughout most of Europe. We climbed as high as we could and unfortunately, failed to realize, sitting on the top has serious risks. We sat like a hunter who sits in a tree stand without securing safely into a safety harness.
Humpty Dumpty too sat like that hunter. He sat on a wall. He failed to secure himself. You know the results.
To sit in an elevated position, you have to secure yourself. Many believed we were secure however; we never fastened ourselves so if our platform was pulled from under us we would not get hurt. Today, we are hurting. We are hurting because of injuries we obtained from the continuous fall.
Don’t worry America; we are not the only ones taking a fall right now. Luckily for us, the entire world around us is falling which has allowed us to remain above the rest. Hopefully, knowing this does not put any of us back in our comfort chair.
The entire continent of Africa is completely deteriorating. Just this past month over 500 Christians were brutally murdered in Nigeria by Islamists in a two hour long attack. Nigeria was once a Christian dominant country. Today it has been filled with Islamist willing to kill any who believe differently. Nigeria is only one example throughout the entire continent of Africa.
Asia continues with their horrific Islamist problem as we have witnessed Abu Sayef in the Philippines continue their atrocities in a onetime Christian dominant land. Thailand is on the brink of becoming the next Pakistan due to their Islamists movements in the south of the country where innocents continue to be butchered. China’s west is also facing their own Islamist crisis.
Europe, well, let’s just face it, Europe is doomed. As a continent, Europe has fallen to the weak mind believing everyone and everything is grand. They had faith in the Euro and unfortunately, they failed to realize that even the Euro couldn’t save them from the Islamist movement hence why some European countries are thinking of banning any Muslims from migrating to their lands.
South America may not have the Islamist crisis openly however, they too are facing serious issues and yes, a link with Islamists exists. We know drugs makes money, we know the Middle East has money, and we know Saudi Arabia is one of the leading financiers for Islamist militants. What a better place to use as a funding source then South and Central America. Shoot, Hamas and Hezbollah have known this for the past 40 years.
Yes, America, we are in a crisis. Look at the world around us. They are in a much worse crisis then we are today. The question is, how long will we remain above the rest of the world? Will we follow the same ideological beliefs our European neighbors have? If one looks at Canada and their own Islamist issues, the answer is obvious.
Ignorance is bliss. Notice, the Middle East was not even mentioned. If you wonder why, stop watching all the reality television shows. If you pay attention to the world around us, and you have concerns about the state of America today, take a stand. It is time to bring community back. It is time to re-engage those values our forefathers attempted to instill.
We are falling and we have been injured. We can get up though and get back on the wall similar to that which Humpty Dumpty once sat. We simply need to secure ourselves. This does not just mean through physical security measures but through all measures of the sense of security such as through community, academia, economically, spiritually, etc. We are being invaded like the rest of the world. What we do to secure ourselves depends on us, “We the People” of the United States.
Kerry Patton served in the U.S. Defense and Justice departments, and as a contractor within the Homeland Security and State departments. He has worked in South America, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Europe, focusing on intelligence and interviewing current and former terrorists, including members of the Taliban. His upcoming book, “Sociocultural Intelligence: The New Discipline of Intelligence Studies,” is due out in June 2010. Currently, Mr. Patton teaches for Henley Putnam University.
