Celebrating Independence Day, sure

But a successful country and system?

That seems at least questionable now.

Here we are, about to celebrate another Independence Day, here in America--the birth of our nation, our independence from tyranny and/or another foreign power dominating us and our independence to do what we wish.

This seems a particularly good time to evaluate the status of this Union and all this Independence.

And this evaluation takes the form of questions:

1) Does it seem like a successful, working system if we spend more than any other nation for health care, so much so that that same care is much more of a privilege than a right?;

2) Does it seem like this system of ours works when we're ranked 37th, internationally, in terms of mortality, on top of that expensive health care sytem?;

3) Does it seem like our system works when 46 million of us have NO health care, at all?;

4) Does a working, successful system have 25,000 deaths per year due to handguns?;

5) Does a working, successful system of any kind have its largest state in bankruptcy, which further threatens the financial security of said system?;

6) Does it make sense that we incarcerate and imprison more people than any other nation on the planet in both raw quantities and as a percentage of our population--both?;

7) Does it make sense for the "wealthiest" nation on the planet (now a questionable claim, it should be said) doesn't have mass transportation, for the betterment of the people and that same nation?;

8) Does it seem like a functioning system would have cities collapsing from the inside out (Detroit, St. Louis, Kansas City, etc.) and even one, from the outside, in (Phoenix)?;

9) Does a successful, functioning system have cities whose residents feel they must continually move out to the farthest reaches of those same cities, just so they can have less violent and more sane lives? (or so they can escape people of other color, however you want to phrase that);

10) Does a positive, successful system support--or have to--the purchase and possession of guns of all sorts for perceived "protection" and "self-preservation"?

All these things apply to us, here in the United States, right now.

Does it seem like this all works?