A Given Choice

If this is indeed the Land of the Free, why do we, of all the nations on Earth, warehouse the highest percentage of our own citizens in prisons?

Why are they disproportionally black and poor?

If we have the most equitable legal system in the world, why is justice too expensive for all but the very rich?

If we have the best medicine, why do tens of thousands of people here have to choose between food and medical care, when no one needs to do so in the 16-20 other countries whose citizens outlive ours?

If ours is the best educational system, why have literacy--and most people's understanding of the world and our culture--declined in every generation since World War II?

If ours is the best political system, why can no one win public office without becoming wholly indebted to those who do not have the common welfare at heart?

If America is so fair, why do its CEOs who, a generation or two ago, made 10-20 times as much money as their average worker, now make 500 times as much by robbing employees' pension plans and legally pauperizing people who have worked hard all their lives?

If the corporations, whose profits all come from your wallet, don't pay taxes, why do you have to make up the shortfall?

If other countries cannot or will not limit their birth rates to the carrying capacity of their lands, but send their population surpluses to you without you permission, why should you be forced to feed and clothe and educate and medicate and far too often incarcerate their citizens at the cost of your own life chances?