The United States falsely claims to be in a perpetual state of war.  Having stuck our noses repeatedly into other people's business, we've stirred up a proverbial hornet's nest, again.  My goal of this blog is not to complain, but to explain.

Two hundred years ago, 50% of American children died before they reached maturity.  Life expectancy was much shorter.  But all that has changed.  Good health care (note that I did not say "excellent health care" because we don't rank in the top ten world wide, except in costs which are double any other nation) has improved our longevity.  So it could not come as a surprise that there is still a price to pay.

What price, and for what reason? First, we kill tens of thousands of each other every year with cars.  If more than 200 people were killed every day in airplane crashes, the public would be outraged.  But we accepted death as part of life on the road, even though our roads are much worse than those of some countries (despite our claims of being the best at everything). 

Yesterday saw another cause of death in the US that is a result of our modern society, a bombing.  Like deaths from airplanes, we are outraged.  But every day we kill with guns, nearly as many as we kill with cars.  But no one complains, or at least complains enough to make any real changes.

We could improve both those death rates (from cars and guns) but we (collectively as a country) don't want to.  We'd have to lower our speed limits, pay more for safer roads (one way only everywhere?) and control the sale and use of guns.  Unfortunately, we prefer the status quo.

Vocabulary:

A perpetual state of war - continuous war

Stuck our noses into other people's business - meddling

A proverbial hornet's nest - disturbing something that should be left along

Life expectancy - how long a person is expected to live based on their current age and perhaps other factors such as lifestyle, smoking, or age

Rank in the top ten - the best ten of the best listed in sequence

Life on the road - a result of being able to have convenient transportation

The status quo - the current situation