Letter: Which America do you live in?

I sometimes feel like those on the extreme right and the extreme left live in a different country than I do.

How bad is America today? GDP is higher than ever. The average American family of four has an income of $112,000. Unemployment is lower than it has been in over 50 years. Job satisfaction is higher than it has been since surveys began 23 years ago. Crime is lower today than it was 30 years ago and, outside of big cities, remains low. Poverty, adjusted for income transfers, is 5.7%.

I grew up in a segregated city when a majority of Americans opposed interracial marriage. Today, no one cares. To be gay when I was young was a crime. Today gay marriage is the law. Sex discrimination was the norm when I was young. Today, half the graduating MDs are female.

Are there still problems? Yes, and there always will be. Inflation, while nothing like in the 1980s, is too high. Schools in our big cities are a disgrace. We need more police, but we also need better police. We allow the mentally ill and drug and alcohol addicted to live on the streets.

But I don’t see a country that is no longer great, and I don’t see a country where discrimination is inherent and rampant. When I look at the good in this country and I compare it with our problems, and I see the trend over time, I’m proud that I’m an American.

Steve Willson

Lakewood