Titanic USA: America is the Titanic and the Titanic is Going Down (Part 3)

The title of my message for today is "Titanic USA: America is the Titanic and the Titanic is Going Down".

100 years ago, on April 14, 1912, a great tragedy occurred in the dark and murky waters of the northern Atlantic Ocean. A great ship -- the Titanic -- which everyone believed to be "unsinkable" struck an iceberg and sank beneath the ocean waters on her maiden voyage. The ship was hailed as a "moving city". It was the largest moving man-made object ever crafted. Titanic set sail from England to New York City with much fanfare and well-wishes. But it never reached its destination.

The Titanic was warned of icebergs at least five times within the twelve hours before it met with tragedy. After icebergs were reported up ahead, the captains were so convinced of the ship's invincibility that they had the ship continue full speed ahead. They were so confident that the ship would not sink that they only had 16 lifeboats on board when a ship of that size carrying that many passengers was supposed to carry 48. The men who designed and commissioned the Titanic were so confident in their abilities that they even had the passengers convinced that the Titanic would not sink. While the ship was going down, people came out on deck and had snowball fights, some people put on lifejackets and danced, still others who heard the news simply rolled over and went back to sleep. In this tragedy, 1,514 people drowned, suffocated or froze to death in the icy waters. Only 710 people were saved. All the ingenuity, all the technological prowess, and all the safeguards (or lack thereof) could not keep the Titanic from sinking.

I am here to tell you today, my friends, that there is another Titanic. And you and I are on it. That Titanic is the United States of America. Yes, I believe that America is the Titanic and the Titanic is going down. Allow me to share with you why this is so.