An Introduction to the Fourth Estate
Throughout the history of this country the media, the once great fourth estate, has until now been able to provide the United States with great and powerful people who have been politically independent. It caused this country to stand up for what was right! Our politicians passed and struck down laws for moral reasons. We waged wars on poverty not on poor people, the homeless and disabled. Our country used to sacrifice, and care about our neighbors, we put our money where our mouths were, and never beat our chests. We used to build great things, and have pride in the term “Made In America” because it really meant something other than just American jobs, we made ungodly technological and scientific advances, explored the universe, cured diseases and cultivated some of the world’s greatest artists of the time and had the world’s greatest economy. We acted like adults and we aspired to intelligence; we didn’t belittle it; it didn’t make us feel inferior. We didn’t identify by who we voted for in the last election, and we didn’t scare so easy, and we we able to be all these things and do all those things because we were informed by great people, people who are revered. The first step in solving a problem is realizing that there is a problem, someone and needs to takeover and create a new option for as a better and more true fourth estate for this generation.
While the argument could be made that we have been in the “Global War on Terror” for over 20 years, ever since September 11, 2001, the last time that the United States Defense Budget was under $25 Billion was in 1950, before the start of the Korean War. Since that time the United States has developed itself from being into a nation that is almost constantly at war, which is part of the reason why as a country we have developed enemies who have attacked us leading to the “Global War on Terror” which unlike regular wars is a war on ideology not one of territorial occupation making it an almost no win situation. The now overblown $715 Billion, more than the next thirteen countries combined, eleven of which are allies, could easily be spent on other more needed areas of development for the country internally to make the United States better. The US Defense Budget is approximately 13% of the National Budget, and even in a global pandemic the largest piece of the national budget. There is no reason that we can justifiably believe that we can be the guardians of the entire world independently from anyone else, and even as the last real remaining Super-Power, the United States does not have any responsibility to protect the entire world. We should be able to accept that our allies are able to defend themselves, and if needed we can lend support as needed. Our defense funding should be used elsewhere where it is most needed in the country’s best interest.
In healthcare, the United States rates thirtieth in out of seventy of the top countries, with the combination of infant mortality rates, drug prices, medication availability coordinated care and multiple other factors. Among the countries ahead of the us include, South Korea which has had Universal Healthcare since 1989, Taiwan in 1995, Denmark in 1961, Austria partially in 2013, Japan in 1961, France in 2000, Switzerland in 1994, Israel in 1995, and both our Northern and Southern neighbors Canada in stages from 1962 to 1972, and Mexico in 2003. The US is the only developed, industrialized wealthy nation without Universal Healthcare. In surveys, United States voters have admitted stated that roughly seven out of every ten voters in the US want universal healthcare regardless of party identity. Considering the current cost of medication prices, the fact that the government under it’s current system is unable to negotiate with pharmaceutical manufacturing companies, the fact that the United States pays more than the twenty-nine nations that come before it on the healthcare rating list, and the fact there are people in the country who go without their medication because they can’t afford it, universal healthcare is a logical change.
Another major issue that the nation faces is education, according to World Atlas, United States is One Hundred and Twenty-fifth in literacy, there was a time when the nation was seventh, and even before that there was a time when the United States was considered number one in literacy. The nation is also ranked Thirty-Fourth in the world in Math and Fifteenth in science, by the World Atlas, when again this once great nation used to be ranked much higher. Perhaps that is part of the reason why instead of curing diseases and being able to reach for the stars again, we have infrastructure such as the Fern Hollow Bridge in Pittsburgh that was only a little over fifty years old that already falling apart , our country used to build bridges that last, both the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges are over 100 years old and while they have had to be repaired, they never collapsed. Education brings improvements and this great country will not endure another 200 years if it does not return to the older ways and educate the next generation so we can not only have an incredible nation, but retain it for decades or even centuries to come.
Our Promise
The Democrats and Republicans messed up; Print and television media has led us astray, as had the available sources so far on the internet. While the news isn’t fully lying to us ever they sold out to the pick sides and play favorites, they forgot the messages of the great people who came before them. While this publication does not, and will not ever make the claim to be of the caliber of such great luminaries as Hamilton, Murrow, Cronkite or Koppel, it will do it’s best to remain completely spin free, and just tell you the facts of the stories that are deemed important as best possible. We will try to bring back the honor of the once great fourth estate.
