People and politics: a lot of people are unhappy with the U.S. these days, but amidst the criticism some are pointing out that the country, and its people, have plenty to be proud of too.

A Survey of America feature in The Economist in November 2003 quotes Alexis de Tocqueville as saying that "Everything about the Americans is extraordinary, but what is more extraordinary still is the soil that supports them." The article goes on to outline some of the country's physical assets: natural harbours on two great oceans, access to one of the world's richest fishing areas, an abundance of raw materials and a huge range of farmed crops, from cold-weather to tropical. The in-depth report continues to explore America's distinctiveness as an explanation of "the best and the worst about the country," and the division within itself.

The Utne Reader also ran an article in its September-October 2003 issue that focussed on the frustrations of Americans concerned "about how our country has gone off course ..." But the author, Don Hazen also points out many of the country's strengths: "... we can't forget that the things we believe in--equality, fairness, justice, dignity, and ultimately kindness and love--inspired the greatest moral and political achievements of the 20th century: civil rights, women's equality, workers' right to organize, and the growth of the environmental movement. These are values that make our society, strong and appealing to the rest of the world."

The U.S. has produced some of the world's most brilliant scientists, inventors, musicians, artists, and civil rights leaders. Many of them have won Nobel Prizes. More than a third of those receiving the Nobel Prize for chemistry between 1901 and 2003 were American. Between 1906 and 2000, of the 49 people awarded Nobel Prizes in neuroscience 22 were American citizens. Fifty-seven current or former members of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology community alone won the Nobel Prize between 1944 and 2003. Between 1969 and 2002 more than two-thirds of those receiving the prize for economics were in the U.S.

After a year of writing a column on America for the Globe and Mail, John Ibbitson concluded in July 2002 that it's easy to criticize the U.S. but he hails it as one of the greatest imperial powers in history. Mr. Ibbitson cites one of the U.S.'s greatest achievements as providing "leadership after 1945 (that helped protect) the world from two of the greatest evils that ever threatened humanity: global nuclear war and aggressive communism."

Websites

AlterNet (Election 2004)--http://www.alternet.org/ election04/

Federal Election Commission--http://www.fec.gov/

U.S. State Department, International Information

Programs--http://usinfo. state.gov/products/pubs/ election04/polls.htm

CHANGING DIRECTION

As Don Hazen notes in the Utne Reader, Americans are increasingly uniting in progressive Web-linked groups such as True Majority (www.truemajority.com), Move On (www.moveon.org), and Working for Change (www.workingforchange.com). They're joining the rest of the world, seeking balance not just in their own country, but globally.

American author Michael Lind made this point in the January/February 2004 issue of The Atlantic Monthly. "It is doubtful that in any society with universal suffrage the majority is going to sit on the sidelines and watch, generation after generation, while a handful of investors and corporate managers reap almost all the benefits of technological and economic progress."