Recently released Department of Defense data shows that 75 percent of Americans ages 17 to 24 don’t qualify for military service. The report noted that one fourth of high school graduates are obese. This is up from only five per cent in 1980.
As a nation, we rank far below all other industrialized nations in infant mortality, health care, and education.
By any standard except our military power, we are a third-rate nation that is falling ever deeper into moral and financial debt.
Far from the glory that was promised when this nation was born, we have become a nation of consumers. This is the legacy that we leave our children—that and obesity.
This article appears in Mar 17-24, 2011.