Published: July 02, 2009 11:15 pm         

What is right with America?

Bill Clinton said some things during his presidency that he, and the rest of us, would just as soon forget — “I did not have sexual relations with that woman,” chief among them.

But in his first inaugural address, delivered Jan. 20, 1993, he said these words, “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.”

We hear often what is wrong with America. The economy still is struggling, we rely too much on foreign oil, we can’t get a handle on illegal immigration, health care is too expensive, our education system is broken, our troops are spread too thin around the world, and so on.

Maybe it’s time we focused on what is right with America.

People like Gene Fletcher are what’s right with America. Fletcher, 14, lives on Michigan’s upper peninsula.

Gene recently traveled 100 miles to raise money for Bay Cliff Health Camp, a nonprofit therapy and wellness center on the UP. The camp is for children and adults with physical disabilities.

Young Mr. Fletcher raised nearly $21,000 for his efforts.

Oh, did I mention Gene Fletcher made the 100-mile trek in his motorized wheelchair? Gene, you see, has cerebral palsy and scoliosis.

James Sheetz also is part of what’s right with America.

The Lancaster, Pa., man was awakened to the sounds of his dogs barking around 2 in the morning. He looked out his window and noticed his neighbor’s mobile home was on fire.

Sheetz, 40, ran out of his house, smashed through a window of the burning mobile home, grabbed a 3-year-old child from his bedroom and carried him outside to safety.

The 3-year-old suffered smoke inhalation and some burns, but recovered. Firefighters say the boy was seconds away from being engulfed by the flames.

Sheetz also suffered burns, but declined to be treated at a hospital.

He also declined to accept the mantle of hero.

“I did what a man’s supposed to do,” he told the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal.

Some women in Marquette, Mich., are what’s right about America.

A baby was born earlier this year in the upper peninsula town, Charles Moses Martin Goodrich. Some 11 hours later his mother, Susan, died of amniotic fluid embolism, a rare occurrence.

Susan planned to breast-feed Moses, her fourth child. Obviously, after her death, that wasn’t going to happen. But a group of nearly 20 women stepped forward and said they would breast-feed the baby.

LeeAnn Camut is what is right with America.

Earlier this week, Camut organized a pizza party. She and her family chipped in nearly $750, and she enlisted local businesses, as well as friends, neighbors and parents from her children’s athletic teams to raise money and collect food.

Oh, the pizza party was for 300 homeless men in Philadelphia. She said she did it because she wanted the men to “feel special.”

What is right with America? We are a generous, big-hearted people. We are hard-working and ambitious. We are selfless and brave. If we see a need, we work to fill it.

We won’t be taken advantage of. We won’t be pushed around. We won’t be bullied. We won’t be fooled, at least not more than once.

We fail almost as much as we succeed. But when we fail, we get back up and try again, armed with the knowledge we gained from our failure.

What is right with America? Plenty.



Mullin is senior writer of the News & Eagle. E-mail him at jmullin@enidnews.com.