New York Times opinion video proclaims America is 'just OK'
Ahead of Independence Day, a new video from The New York Times argues that America used to be great but is now 'just OK.' Peter Lumaj, an attorney who fled communist Albania to the U.S., explains why The Times is wrong.
An attorney who fled communist Albania hit back Wednesday against a New York Times opinion team video which claimed America is now "just OK."
The video detailed the United States' ranking among other developed countries, making the argument that the U.S. "used to be great," but public corruption, election problems and other issues have moved the U.S. closer to some developing countries.
"America may once have been the greatest, but today America, we're just OK," the commentator stated.
Peter Lumaj told "Fox & Friends" that the basis on which America was founded is what makes our country different from the rest.
"American exceptionalism is based on freedom and liberty on the founding documents of this country," he said. "Because of the founding documents and freedom and liberty that we provide to this nation, we have developed the greatest nation on Earth."
Lumaj explained that his father died in a concentration camp so that his sons could live in freedom. He told the hosts that he spent nine months in different refugee camps where he was processed, fingerprinted and went through a background investigation, but it was worth it to be able to come to America.
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"The fact that we wanted what the United States had to offer, that freedom, that opportunity, we were willing to sacrifice anything and everything that we could that we had just to come over here and live the American dream," he said.
Lumaj went on to pay his way through college and law school before joining the Giuliani administration in New York City. The attorney expressed his concern for the push towards socialism in the United States, saying that our nation is "committing suicide" by promoting the same ideals that failed in his home country.
"I'm living the American dream and so are hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people who escaped Eastern Europe," he continued.
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The New York Times Opinion video based its evidence on the United States' ranking among other countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. According to the video, the United States has one of the highest poverty rates among the involved countries, with nearly one in five children living in poverty.
The commentator criticized the U.S. because "elections are tampered with, water can't be drunk from taps, citizens don't trust uniformed officers, infrastructure is crumbling and where a dual system is emerging when public services are for sale to the highest bidder."
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