"U.S.A., U.S.A., U.S.A.!" is the chant I hear inside the Providence Civic Center when World Wrestling Federation superstar Lex Luger was competing.

I left the building to see thousands of foreign cars. There were very few Fords, Chevrolets, or Dodges around. But, there were a ton of Toyotas, Hondas, and Mazdas.

I'm sick and tired of the way American people treat this country and its products. You go around Boston and see tons of graffiti on American schools, and around the corner the principal's driving a Mercedes (made in Germany). In an electronics store, only one of five products says "Made in America" - and the one next to it (the foreign one) outsells ours three-to-one.

Don't you people get tired of it? The most popular video games are made by Nintendo and Sega - which are made in Japan. One of the most unpopular game systems is made by Atari - made in the U.S.A.

You wonder why your dad or mom gets laid off from that U.S. company. Here's why. Because you and the rest of the 250 million Americans buy our foreign competitors' items.

And then how do you treat this country of ours? Our presidents make up these promises to get elected, then break them the next day. Our teachers make a living teaching us to become smarter kids; yet European and Japanese students outscore us on every academic test. There are kids in this country who can't name all 50 states or don't even know who killed John F. Kennedy - yet people in Europe know all 50 states, capitals, and all the presidents in alphabetical order! In Singapore, they don't have a piece of paper on their streets. We have tons of profanity on our streets.

Maybe one day someone will invent a formula of pride to place in the Americans' hearts. Then again, by the time we realized what America has become, the Japanese will have already made that formula, and then we'll have to buy it. The bottom line is - I think the red and white stripes have been changed to yellow stripes - right down the back of us, the Americans. ?