There are a great many reasons to love America. For one thing, Freedom of Speech remains largely intact in the USA (although the FDA has struck a serious blow to the principle with its ongoing censorship of free speech about nutritional supplements). We also have a diverse culture of people who are by and large friendly people. This was brought home to me recently when I was traveling through the Gulf Coast region, talking to people on the street about the BP oil spill. Virtually everyone was friendly, and I found I could walk right up to all sorts of people -- from the country fisherman in Biloxi Mississippi to the street-drumming entertainers in New Orleans -- and they were all happy to chat.

America offers a lot to be thankful for, but there are also some serious problems that are eroding the very things that make America great. Those problems are the subject of my most recent CounterThink Cartoon called "America Today" which portrays six of the most serious problems threatening America's future.

Below, I explain each of these six big problems and why they threaten the future of America as we know it.

#1: Medicated Drivers

This is one of the most widely ignored problems in America today: While drunk drivers are widely condemned and incarcerated for taking the wheel while inebriated, the epidemic of medicated drivers is largely swept under the rug.

As much as one-third of all automobile accidents involve medicated drivers, I learned from a police captain in Tucson, Arizona. The aggregate harm caused by medicated drivers is now far worse than the harm caused by drunk drivers. Police rarely test drivers for being under the influence of medication even though many medications cause impaired judgment, lengthened reaction times and a loss of hand-eye coordination.

There is currently no national group focused on opposition to medicated drivers, either. This is the big problem on America's roads that no one is talking about (except NaturalNews and a handful of other forward-thinking bloggers).

Remember: Popping pills and driving don't mix.

#2: Counterfeit Money Supply

By now, we all know that the Federal Reserve is counterfeiting the U.S. money supply by printing trillions of dollars (creating money out of thin air) to bail out rich Wall Street banksters.

If you or I did this, we'd be arrested for counterfeiting. But when the Fed does it, somehow it's all okay... even though the Fed isn't even part of the federal government! Ron Paul was right: Audit the Fed! After all, why should the U.S. money supply be monopolized by a private corporation that doesn't even answer to the People?

#3: Zombie Population

The U.S. population has abandoned critical thinking skills to such an extent that even those people who manage to think just a little now appear downright brilliant.

Rather than a nation of critical thinkers, we have largely become a nation of zombie consumers who eat what they're told, buy what they're told, vote how they're told and even believe what they're told rather than thinking for themselves. The result is a fundamental shift towards a "nanny state" where people want their government leaders to take control of their lives rather than deciding things on their own.

This, of course, will only lead us to socialism... the great refuge of lazy minds.

#4: Washington Whores

No, I'm not talking about the prostitutes in Washington D.C. who are probably running a more honest business than the metaphorical whores who sit in our nation's capitol. They are the politicians who take money from corporations to betray the People by favoring the legislative interests of Big Business.

It's happening across the board, too, from Big Pharma and Big Tobacco to agriculture, chemicals, food companies, oil firms and defense contractors. All the biggest industries have managed to tilt our elected representatives in their direction, abandoning the needs of the people they claim to represent.

#5: Gunpoint Medicine

If you are a parent in America, it is illegal to refuse to participate in the sick-care system of toxic western medicine. When parents try to protect their children from toxic chemotherapy drugs or vaccines, they are threatened with arrest and imprisonment. Child Protective Services steps in and threatens to steal their children away, and court Judges order parents to subject their children to these toxic therapies or flee and become fugitives from the law. (I've documented much of this here on NaturalNews. Just search the website for stories on these topics if you want to learn more.)

It all makes you wonder: How bad does western medicine have to become if it has to force compliance at gunpoint? What kind of system of healing subjects people to the tyranny we're seeing right now in America's "sick care" system? The answer is obvious: Western medicine doesn't work, and as more people walk away from it, the State is increasingly forcing people to subject themselves to its rule as a way to mandate compliance for increased corporate profits.

#6: Toxic Food Supply

I've been writing about the toxic food supply since 2003, when my first book Grocery Warning was introduced. (And many people before me were writing about it for decades.) Now, all of a sudden, the mainstream media has become aware of the issue (which is a good thing) and even CNN is running reports about the toxicity of BPA, the "plastics" chemical.

It won't take too many more years before even mainstream scientists attack chemicals in the food supply in much the same way they once went after Big Tobacco. It doesn't take much thought to realize that if you want to support a healthy population, there's no room in the food supply for toxic synthetic chemicals that disrupt hormones, promote cancer and interfere with normal physiological function.

The real surprise will come when scientists one day realize that virtually the entire food supply is filled with toxic chemicals like MSG, aspartame, artificial colors, whiteners and flow agents. Mark my words: They will look back on 2010 in utter shock at how clueless our modern civilization was for feeding ourselves such poisons. (Echoes of the Roman Empire's lead poisoning come to mind...)

Beyond the six: Pharmaceutical pollution of the waterways and more...

While these six problems certainly present major threats to the future of life in America, there are many other threats that didn't make it into this particular CounterThink Cartoon.

In particular, there's the pharmaceutical pollution of our waterways caused by drug factories dumping billions of doses of drugs down the drain. This situation is now so bad that the fish near all major U.S. cities are intoxicated with pharmaceutical chemicals.

We've also got other major problems with the political leadership of this country such as the erosion of personal virtue and the prioritizing of selfish gain over the common good. Virtually every elected representative in Washington now focuses most of their effort on staying in power rather than achieving practical advancements for the people who elected them to office.

Without question, America has lost much of what first made it great. But with conscious effort, it can regain its greatness.

I believe the American people have the spirit and the resources to halt the downfall of their country. The question remains, however: Will they choose to turn things around? Or will they instead settle for the path of comfortable degradation?