Buy American...

The Pay Off!


I try, I try really hard to buy American. I spend more time running from store to store just looking for American made products than it takes to ... Can't help it. I feel its my way to support Americans, and if everyone did the same it may just send a signal to the big box stores that we want American made products. The Chinese junk they sell is yet a story for another day.


In 2010 I was upgrading my kitchen and made the rounds to all the home improvement stores looking for a new kitchen faucet. While most companies are American owned not all of their products are made here. So I finally settled on a Moen faucet and the determining factor was it was "Made In America". 


The faucet I purchased had a filtering system built into it so I did not need to buy and install a separate piece. A few weeks ago the light started blinking telling me it was time to change the filter. So off to the store to buy a filter. I ended up having to order the filter from Moen because the big box junk stores no longer carried this item, nothing made in America to be found anywhere. I ordered the filters from  the manufacturer and received them in a couple days. 


While waiting for the filters I decided to finally install the water line to my automatic ice maker. In the process I broke the housing that holds the water filter! I am a klutz, and I broke it, it was not the fault of the faucet or filter. I called Moen again thinking it may be almost as expensive to buy a new faucet. I explained my problem to the young lady on the phone admitting I broke the part asking her how much to replace it and she replied "I'm sorry for the problem you are having and I would like to send you a new part at NO CHARGE". Truly I was amazed. Before I called Moen I went looking the part up on line and the cheapest I could find it for was $52 and that place said it was out of stock and everywhere else it was going to be closer to $70. 


Anyway...the point is we should all make an attempt, a serious attempt to buy American, perhaps the job I helped to save by buying American is reading this blog. 

What is an American

    

What is an American
'An American is English, French, Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek, an American is also Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, Arab, Pakistani or Afghan, and an American is also Comanche, Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans.


An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses. An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.


An American lives in the most prosperous land in the history of the world.
The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God given right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.


An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return. When Afghanistan was over-run by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country! As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan.


The quote on the national symbol of America, The Statue of Liberty reads:
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
These in fact are the people who built America. 


Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2001 earning a better life for their families. It's been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 different countries, cultures, and some first languages included those that aided and abetted the terrorists.


So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did, General Tojo, Stalin, Mao Tse-Tung, and other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world tried. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.