Americans Can and Do

In light of the holiday season I want to provide 2011 stories that show Americans are caring and can pull ourselves out of bad situations. 

A couple of weeks before Thanksgiving, in New York City, veterans and caregivers were honored with a celebrity show and Sears gave over $25,000 for clothes, etc. while volunteers did makeup and hair. The US on December 2, 2011 handed over its HQs to the Iraqi and 70,000 troops and private contractors are headed home by year end. Whether you agree with the war in Iraq or not, we should support our military and their families that answered our country’s call for duty. If you live near a veteran or a VA hospital just take some time and sit with them, find out if there’s something they need because they still deserve our respect. Don’t let things be like they were when our military returned from Vietnam. A couple of groups supporting our military are: Team Red, White & Blue (provides buddies for returning military) and Joining Forces. Operation Mend is a unique partnership between Brooke Army Medical Center and the University of California in Los Angeles; they give burned military several free facial operations costing up to $500,000 each.

On October 19 ABC News reported that the unemployment rate in North Dakota is 3% and there are 16,000 jobs available in oil, agriculture, manufacturing and construction (3,000 in Bismarck). Homes sell in 3 weeks or less, get 99% or more of the asking price and the value has gone up 6% this past year. On November 4 they said US factory orders and productivity were up. On November 7 it was reported that American businesses are taking their business overseas; Heaven Hill Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky is selling bourbon in 126 countries up 18% last year, Maine is marketing lobsters and sales are up 3 years in a row, Texas Pete hot sauce is in 8 countries and California is now in demand in Europe. Cyber Monday sales went up 18% over last year. On December 2 the Bureau of Labor statistics showed the US unemployment rate at 8.6%, the lowest since March 2009 (315,000 people are no longer looking for work) and Wall Street closed out with its best week since 2009. For the week of December 5, the Labor Department reported that the number of people applying for unemployment dropped to 366,000; the lowest since before the recession began and a lot of people are saying the turnaround is for real. People are buying products, cars and homes and more new businesses are being created. On December 16 Fedex reported a 76% increase profit and credits it with online shopping.

On October 28 The Talk announced that Cheerios was partnering with the USO, for every postcard the USO receives to distribute to military personnel by November 2012 using their special box they will donate $1 to the USO to help fund programs for military families.

On November 29 ABC News said the average American spends $700 on Christmas gifts every year; if every American spent $64 on a present made in American we could create 200,000 jobs (in the 1960s 9 out of 10 products were made in America; today it’s less than 50%). As a result of this campaign, on December 5 ABC reported that people are buying made in America products and small businesses are hiring. While in Iowa, Diane Sawyer on December 2 asked people about buying gifts made in America. It turns out that Iowans make shoes, salsa, wine, bleu cheese, socks, Rada cutlery, scarfs, blankets, clocks, and the store Isabel Bloom is under new management and selling handcrafted items made in America; they also grow grapes. Additionally, people started contacting ABC about made in America products, it turns out that Crayola crayons, slinkies and other toys are made right here; one such company makes trucks out of recycled plastic.