Guess What: People in the World are the SAME Everywhere

There are those out there -- too many really -- who judge people solely by the color they happen to be or the religion they choose to be.

Not me. Growing up in an open non-racist society like Iowa and traveling the world from an early age taught me something incredibly valuable. Everyone in the world is the same!

Yes, yes, we have different cultures, different languages, different sexes and different systems of government. But people everywhere that I met – from Rio to London to Beijing -- are the same.

A banana was thrown at a sports player who happened to be black at a European event. East Europe is more racist than Western Europe. After his election, I heard people use the “N word” about President Obama, America’s first black President, who was not responsible for the financial disaster he inherited. President Bush had inherited a $250 billion surplus from President Clinton. President Obama inherited a $1.2 Trillion deficit his first day on the job – facing a modern version of the Great Depression. His inherited crap and on his first day people are using the “N-word” to describe him. Then they feel they can bring down an economy rather than help him turn the ship of state around. What does that say?

I was lucky. I went from a small farm in Iowa to being sent around the world, starting with the Fortune 500 since I was a young professional – over 50 countries so far. I found over and over again that all people are the same everywhere. They want good schools and education for themselves and their children. They want opportunity. They want justice and fairness. Many of them looked up to America because they could see Americans got justice and freedoms they weren’t getting.

All of them want to be left alone from abusive government. Who wants a dictator dragging off your family and killing them? They want to practice their religion and raise their kids in a good economic environment. In short, they are just like Americans.

When we can realize that --and start focusing on how to economically win a global high tech century -- only then will America have a chance to get its mojo back again.

We need everyone in America, of all colors and religions, to be educated -- promoting the American dream into the 21^st Century. If we don’t, then it is China and its system of old men denying people the right to vote that will be the only other major economic power in the world.

We have the resources to fire up a brave new century of American greatness. We must advance the skills of our people to put us on the cutting edge of technology to win the 21^st century. Only then can we make the world a better place –if only we choose to do so!

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