HALF A MILLIONAIRE

The New York Yankees are champions, again. They have done it twenty seven times. However, it amazes me when I realize that most of my friends at work and many others hate the Yankees. And, when I ask them for the reason why they harbor so much hatred for the baseball club, I receive the most absurd answer–”because they have so much money and win all the times”. I do recognize that there is some truth in the answer. However, I do not believe that money is the only factor that helps them win “all the times”. There must be something special about the organization. Personally, I believe that the Yankees’ constant success is the byproduct of effective management and leadership. And, therefore, instead of hating the winners, we all must love them, study them and become like them. So, why don’t people like the Yankees?

I would like to share a personal story before I attempt to answer the above question. I grew up in a communist country where I was taught to hate the United States of America because it was an evil empire that only wanted to conquer and destroy its neighbors. However, the truth was that my home country was poor because the communist leaders were corrupt and uneducated. They did not care for the people. They just wanted to fill up their pockets with the people’s sweat and blood. When I came to America, I began to see the light. After I had learned more about the game, I understood why the U.S. was the winning team. Capitalism, freedom to compete, encourages creativity because each individual wants to win and harvest the fruit of his labor. On the other hand, communism is just a stupid idea because it suggests that everyone works and shares the fruit. In the beginning, the communist comrades work and share. However, after awhile, they start to question the system because they see that there are many who do not work as hard but still enjoy the same fruit. Therefore, eventually, everyone will stop and the system breaks down. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, I was so happy because it proved to me that I had understood the game. The sad thing is that communism is still ruling my home country because the communist comrades still refuse to change. They are holding on to their power because they still have empty pockets which they plan to fill up with the people’s bones and skulls.

Sometimes, we see others succeed, but we still stubbornly refuse to accept the fact that they are better than us because we know that we are weaker and afraid that we can never become like them even if we try. Many of us hate the Yankees because we know that our favorite team can never become like the New York Yankees. Perhaps, some of us want to defect and become Yankee fans, but we are afraid that others will label us as “traitors”. Therefore, we force ourselves to like our losing team by lying to ourselves–”it is ok because I am a true fan”. We choose to enjoy the pain and humiliation of defeat every year while the Yankees fans are celebrating.

For those who hate the U.S., please look at your own government. Are the leaders of your country corrupt? Perhaps, they are the evil individuals who take away your food and shelter. If you still hate the U.S., please study harder or become smarter to help your country compete with us. If you still hate the U.S. and do not know what to do, I would like to suggest that, first, you learn from us and then you use that knowledge to beat us. If you are still stubborn and refusing to understand, I would like to offer this simple analogy: Imagine that you are running a marathon and the U.S. is the leader. You must gather your strength and courage to beat the U.S. because you know in your heart that the U.S. will not slow down to let you win. The U.S. will always go after the gold medal even though it has won it many times. It competes because it constantly wants to advance human civilization.

In college, I had three roommates. We shared a studio-loft apartment. We put two standard bunk beds in the upstair loft, and we used the downstair studio for studying. They often went home during weekends because their parents lived in nearby cities. Sometimes, they teased me by demanding that I should pay higher rent because I used the unit more than they did. One weekend, I had the flu. I was very tired, so I immediately went to bed after having taken some Theraflu. I woke up on Saturday and felt better symptomatically, but I knew that I was still sick. Without an appetite, I stumbled to the kitchen and filled up my stomach with a bowl of instant noodles and went back to bed. I woke up and fell back to sleep several times without eating anything because I was too weak to get out of bed. When I saw sunlight again, I knew that it was Sunday. I allowed my lifeless body to slide off the top bed and onto the floor. I began to crawl down the stairs. As I was lying on the floor of the studio, the front door opened. Vince, one of my roommates, came back to campus early because he wanted to catch up with his reading assignments. I told him that I was hungry and asked him to make a glass of milk for me by mixing condensed milk with boiled water. He did. A couple of weeks later, I recovered fully. And, a decade later, I am still talking about my friend.

The foundation of our society is individualism. Each of us has the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. We have the freedom to express our own individuality. We have conservatives and liberals. We have the rich and the poor. I will never trade our system for anything because it is an accurate representation of life. Only through struggles and competition we can grow and improve. Personally, I believe that the purpose of my life is to fight and thrive because I do not want to waste the chance that America has given me. In other words, I do not want to lose. And, unfortunately, in this fight, there is no tie. Some complain that the system is unfair. Some gripe about being born at the bottom of chain. And, perhaps, there is some truth in these cries. However, life is more interesting when we accept its challenges. We shall not rely on the government to solve our problems for us because it cannot even take care of itself.

As of July 4th, 2009, our national debt is approximately $11.4 trillions (U.S. National Debt Clock). Many financial experts argue that it is not a big problem because we are still capable of paying the annual interest of about $450 billions. We scold our uninformed Americans for taking out interest-only mortgages, but we have been allowing the Federal government to do it for more than two centuries. Personally, I don’t think the politicians know how to solve the problem because it has ballooned so quickly. And, none of “the patriots” is willing to take a political risk. Tomorrow, President Obama will whisper sweet birthday-wishing words into our Mother’s ears. He will retell us the stories about how our great founding fathers defeated a powerful king 233 years ago and how we freed slaves. And, we will applaud with our wrists and ankles shackled by debts.

Tomorrow, I will celebrate the 4th of July with my family because to me it symbolizes freedom. I am free to express my individuality. I am free to take care of myself first. However, besides freedom, individualism requires compassion to flourish. I do not want to credit our founding fathers for having created one of the most compassionate country in the world, but it seems that they did everything right. They did not ask us to be compassionate. They only gave us freedom, and, somehow, when we all strive to search for our own “individuals”, and when we truly understand the meaning of individualism, we automatically become a compassionate people. Perhaps, during the fight to become who we are, we discover the tasteful fruit of compassion. Personally, I think that individualism has pushed me to become more compassionate. For example, I want to help others understand the meaning of individualism, too. It is not selfishness. It is self-improvement. When one is independent, one feels empowered. And, when one is powerful, one will offer others “a glass of hot milk”.