The First Post: America not dead yet

In Europe, it's become popular to bash America and anything American. In what psychologists might describe as a classic case of projection, conventional wisdom holds that we're a nation in decline morally, socially and economically.

Over at The First Post, William Langley disagrees.

The article describes efforts in Britain to reduce crime and improve social woes by consulting with Bill Bratton, former NYC police commissioner and now chief of the LAPD. He is largely credited with the reduction in crime in New York, and is now doing the same for Los Angeles. According to Langley:

We keep asking him how to tackle crime, and when he tells us to encourage civic responsibility, be merciless on minor offenders, and build more prisons for serious ones we choose to ignore him.

Langley goes on to detail the statistics supporting his claim that America is just fine and getting better, and closes with this paragraph:

You feel it everywhere. In the courteousness and generosity of ordinary Americans, and the pride they have in their country. We don't hear much about it, because it doesn't fit our Euro-jaundiced view of what the United States is. And when someone like Bratton offers us a helping hand we prefer to ignore it.

Happy Birthday, America.