ENID CROW

America is another name for Opportunity.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, "American Civilization," The Complete Works (1904)

Americans work more than anyone in the industrialized world. More than the English, more than the French, way more than the Germans or Norwegians. Even, recently, more than the Japanese. And Americans take less vacation, work longer days, and retire later, too.

Dean Schabner, "Americans Work More Than Anyone," ABCNews.com, May 1, 2017

By nearly every statistical measure, researchers say, America's lower class now smokes more and dies more from cigarettes than other Americans.

William Wan, "America's New Tobacco Crisis: The Rich Stopped Smoking, The Poor Didn't," Washington Post, June 13, 2017

[T]he number of people going hungry has grown dramatically in the U.S., increasing to 48 million by 2012—a fivefold jump since the late 1960s, including an increase of 57 percent since the late 1990s. 

Tracie McMillan, The New Face of Hunger, National Geographic, July 16, 2014

Over the past century, Americans have become increasingly obsessed with the supposed desirability of thinness, as thinness has become both a marker for upper-class status and a reflection of beauty ideals that bring a kind of privilege.

Paul F. Campos, "Our Absurd Fear of Fat," New York Times, January 2, 2013

The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good.

Harold Pinter, "Art, Truth & Politics," Nobel Lecture, Nobelprize.org, December, 7, 2005

Hating Wall Street is an American tradition that dates back even to the days when Thomas Jefferson cursed that money lover Alexander Hamilton. And for centuries, the complaints about it have largely stayed the same: It does nothing! It creates chaos! It's a parasite that sucks hardworking Americans dry!

Adam Davidson, "What Does Wall Street Do for You?" New York Times, January 11, 2012

Americans as a society generally don't take vacations. While many of us would love to travel, we live in an economy where job security is rare and most of us live in fear that if we take any time off work, our job may not be waiting for us upon our return.

Jodie Gummow, "America is a No-Vacation Nation," Alternet.org, August 23, 2013

The women of America have become heavily indoctrinated by secularism and they have changed dramatically into godless, licentious, narcissistic, angry and lewd individuals.

"The Dominance of the Godless American Woman," The Ignorant Fishermen Blog, August 6, 2012

With a July 2015 population of 8,550,405, New York is the most populous city in the United States, more than twice the size of the second largest city, Los Angeles. About 1 in every 38 people living in the United States resides in New York City.

New York City Department of Planning, "Population Facts," NYC.gov

Porch sitting . . . is a staple of most urban areas in the United States, and helps contribute to a lively atmosphere, for those sitting and also those passing by.

"Porch Sitting," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org

An American today is significantly more likely to suffer clinical depression at some point in his or her life than at any other time in the past hundred years.

Kalle Lasn and Bruce Grierson, "Why is America so Depressed?" Utne Reader, September-October 2000

At the same time America has become much more democratic—between the use of polls, referendums, and initiatives, the Voting Rights Act of the 1960s—people have become less capable of exercising their democratic responsibilities.

Bret Schulte, "The Ignorant American Voter," U.S. News & World Report, June 3, 2008

Women in America are drinking far more, and far more frequently, than their mothers or grandmothers did, and alcohol consumption is killing them in record numbers.

Kimberly Kindy and Dan Keating, "For Women, Heavy Drinking has Been Normalized. That's Dangerous," Washington Post, December 23, 2016

Rates of loneliness have doubled since the 1980s. Today, over 40% of adults in America report feeling lonely, and research suggests that the real number may well be higher.

Vivek Murthy, "Work and the Loneliness Epidemic," Harvard Business Review, September 2017

The biggest problem with porn is that it ruins America's chance at great sex. It turns out that some men report having trouble performing in the bedroom after living porn-saturated lives as teenagers, and some women report feeling pressure to act like porn stars during their most intimate moments. In other words, some men's minds are so damaged that they have to experience either porn or a porn-like encounter to be sexually satisfied.

David French, "America's Real Porn Problem," The National Review, April 7, 2016

The figure is a little hard to swallow: 1,996 pounds, or nearly one ton. This is an estimate of how much—by weight—the average American eats over the course of one year. 

Allison Aubrey, "The Average American Ate (Literally) A Ton This Year," NPR.org, December 31, 2011

Americans . . . are forever searching for love in forms it never takes, in places it can never be. It must have something to do with the vanished frontier.

Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle (1963)

In a 2013 Pew Research Center survey, 88% of Americans cited love as a very important reason to get married, ahead of making a lifelong commitment (81%) and companionship (76%). Fewer (28%) said financial stability was a very important reason to marry.

Gretchen Livingston and Andrea Caumont, 5 Facts on Love and Marriage in America (Washington, D.C.: Pew Research Center, February 13, 2017)

Only in America could a man who brags about groping and kissing women without their consent win 53 percent of the vote among white women.

"Graydon Carter on Trump’s 'Only in America' Election," Vanity Fair, 2016

Americans remained selflessly devoted to their pets during the recession, holding their spending on pet food steady through the downturn while cutting back on the luxury of eating out.
Danielle Kurtzleben, "Americans Spend $61 Billion on Pets Annually," U.S. News & World Report, May 22, 2013

One by one, the problems that America has long dismissed as "urban" have marched into the suburbs: crime, poverty, hunger, deindustrialization, drug addiction, civil unrest. The dissolution of community institutions. An aging stock of unwanted houses.

Henry Grabar, "The Retail Apocalypse Is Suburban," Slate.com, April 18, 2017

Sixty-five percent of women reported experiencing at least one type of street harassment in their lifetimes. More than half (57%) of all women had experienced verbal harassment, and 41% of all women had experienced physically aggressive forms, including sexual touching (23%), following (20%), flashing (14%), and being forced to do something sexual (9%). 

Stop Street Harassment, Unsafe and Harassed in Public Spaces: A National Street Harassment Report (Reston, Virginia: Stop Street Harassment, Spring 2014)

A substantial number of women in the United States face economic hardship: approximately one in six adult women have family incomes below the federal poverty line. 

Institute for Women's Policy Research, "Poverty, Gender, and Public Policies," Briefing Paper, IWPR #D505, (Washington, D.C.: Institute for Women’s Policy Research, February 2016)

It contradicts all the cultural beliefs we have about the way men are and/or are supposed to be, but the dirty little secret is . . . American men are flagging in their desire for sex.

Hara Estroff Marano, "When Men Suffer Low Sex Drive," Psychology Today, March 1, 2003

Americans' concern about their physical appearance fuels a huge component

of the U.S. economy, extending across clothing, makeup, hair care, weight

control, and cosmetic surgery industries.

Justin McCarthy, Gallup, "Older Americans Feel Best About Their Physical Appearance,"

Gallup.com, July 10, 2014

In 2009, the proportion of American women who were married dropped below 50 percent. In other words, for the first time in American history, single women (including those who were never married, widowed, divorced, or separated) outnumbered married women.

Rebecca Traister, "The Single American Woman," New York (magazine), February 22, 2016

Fewer than two in 10 Americans get the recommended levels of exercise, and more than a quarter of U.S. adults do not devote any time to physical activity.

Bradley Blackburn, "New CDC Report Says Many Americans Get No Exercise," ABCNews.com

Trends in food intake over time show that, at the population level, Americans are not consuming healthy eating patterns. 

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2015–2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 8th ed. (Washington, D.C.: December 2015)

Census projections show that by the census of 2050, the United States will no longer have a clear white majority at least as we define "white" today. Fifty-three percent of the population will be multiracial or nonwhite, compared with less than 40 percent currently.

Dana Goldstein, "America: This is Your Future," Politico.com, November 30, 2016

Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray! Hooray for the U. S. A.!

There's no place I like better than America! There's no place I would rather stay. So let's give a cheer to the land we love. Let the whole world hear us say:

Three cheers for America! Stand up proud and tall!

Three cheers for America. Sing out one and all!

Churchville Chili Central School, "Three Cheers for America," www.ccsd.org