Greece has contributed so much to the world with many ideas which allowed man to be free to pursue his dreams and to further enrich the world.  The first idea creating patents came from Greece, freedom of the individual, scientific investigation was pioneered in Greece, and the list goes on.  Greece was so respected that at the end of the American Revolution the pioneering intellectuals of the country believed the stage was set for an American Athens in freedom for the individual.

Those intellectuals like David Ramsey, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Daniel Webster pushed for patents and copyrights to protect the works of inventors and writers.  They believed this new found freedom would "fan the spark of genius in the breast of man."  History has proven it worked, but some writers still locked in the past have missed the true story of America.  They missed how those ideas were set aflame by Greece long before this country was settled. 

A recent spate of newspaper articles bemoaning the lack of vision for the millennium on the part of the United States misses the point entirely.  One writer was concerned about the passing of a symbolic date without the grand dreams about the future and to reevaluate the past.  He pointed out that coming to grips with the past would free us to dream great dreams for the future.

"No apology is needed for the American position coming into the next century.  The Scientific American of 1895 stated "Invention and civilization stand correlated--invention the cause and civilization the effect. 

We have developed innovation to a high art form and civilization has advanced as a result.  Through our innovation we have made palaces of our homes.  Man is free to dream great dreams.  Americans have landed on the moon; we are sending space probes to Mars and sharing space stations with other countries.  We are the most advanced nation in medicine and medical care.  We are a world economic leader and military power. Our imagination and love of freedom is our guide. 

We did so much that Americans forgot to take stock of their accomplishments.  The United States and "Old Glory" do stand for something in the last millennium.  Americans are not dunces and unimaginative as some writers would have you believe.

This is what we have achieved and why we can lead the way in the next century and the new millennium.  The United States stood out in the last 1000 years because we are the "great experiment" in democracy.  Our citizens are free.

Throughout history man struggled for liberty and freedom and the opportunity to improve his life.  To own his ideas.  For the free man, the turning point in world history came with the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787.

Our Founding Fathers protected the works of inventors and writers for a certain period of time in the overriding law of the land, the American Constitution.

In this revolutionary document, for the first time in world history man was given his God given right to create and own his own idea.  His intellectual property was a property right.

The United States is the only country in the world to officially set its citizens loose to dream, invent, or write and protect their work in a Constitution.  We all profit from the prosperity that is generated by protecting the work of inventors and writers in Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the Constitution.  President George Washington signed our first patent bill in 1790 and by 1895 the United States was a world economic leader dominating all the world's trade shows.

This simple clause in the Constitution allowed Americans to create the millions of wonderful inventions and allowed us to cure man of diseases, send a man to the moon, to sail the oceans and explore the seas and fly higher and further than anyone could dream.

We watch scenes as they happen on television and are now being introduced to the wonders of the world wide web.  We create jobs and new businesses from patents.  The greatest breakthroughs in medicine came from America.  We are limited only by our imaginations.

Americans are always redefining what should be done and how to innovate.  We are the most highly organized nation in the world and also the most philanthropic.  We are so busy organizing and innovating that we do not take credit for our achievements.

America stood out in this millennium as an experiment in freedom and for the right to innovate and own your own idea.  It is a property right.  We were so successful that we quadrupled the per capita income in the last century and again this century with the advent of airplanes, railroads, computers and television and medical breakthroughs.

We increased our income so dramatically with the best patent system in the world.  The United States owns ten times more intellectual property than the rest of the industrialized world combined.  The next century should be America's and the next millennium if the following statements are correct:

Fred Warshofsky author of "The Patent Wars--The Battle To Own The World's Technology" states, "In the war for global economic dominance, the fiercest battles today are over intellectual property.  Where nations once fought for control of trade routes and raw materials, they now fight for exclusive rights to ideas, innovation and inventions."

We have been successful.  Industry Week reported in 1998 that "Based on companies listed in Industry Week's 1000, the U.S. continues to manufacture almost twice as much wealth as any other country with U.S. companies on the list generating more than $3 trillion in 1997 revenue."  That is a great achievement, but the future looks even better.

According to Business Week the U.S. is at a crest of the greatest surge of technology in world history.  The headline in the August 1997 edition screams, "You ain't seen nothing yet we're just at the start of a powerful surge in technology that will boost economic gains into the next century."

"There is growing evidence that the U.S. economy is in the early stages of a powerful new wave of innovation, ---the U.S. is riding a groundswell of innovation that could carry it well into the next century."  It took a century to quadruple our income, but Business Week writes that with this surge of technology it is expected that in ten years businesses will increase their income by 56 percent.

The Chief economist at Sandia Labs, Arnold B. Baker, is quoted in Business Week, "There's going to be a fundamental change in the global economy unlike anything we've had since cavemen began bartering."

Those statements reflect what Dr. Bruce Merrifield, Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy for eight years in the Reagan Administration. 

Merrifield testified at the Chemical Weapons Treaty hearing that: "All nations now understand that technology is the primary engine of industrial competitiveness.  He stated, "Let me remind ourselves that we have an historically unprecedented opportunity now to lead the entire world to accelerated economic development and increased quality of life."

"This opportunity begins with our advanced technology, which we can share through international strategic alliances; also we can translate next generation technologies into useful products, processes and services; we have a unique entrepreneurial culture that has permission to try and fail, and try again until successful, without personal or social penalty; we have the world's most flexible capital development capacity in the world's largest market, served by one common language.  We have everything in spades, and it's important that we work together to build on this historically unprecedented set of capability to strengthen, not dilute their efficacy."

These statements about the United States and what we have achieved were confirmed in a speech on October 21, 1999 before the European Commission by Erkki Liikanen, Commissioner Responsible for the Enterprise and Information Society of the European Union.

The Commissioner talked about releasing the "enormous creative potential" of the European Union.  The objective was to "Channel its ideas, intelligence and research into world beating products and services."

The Commissioner explained the problems the European Union faces and explained why the United States is a success.  He stated, "In Europe, the gazelles are missing.  In the U.S. they have generated 80 percent of U.S. job growth."  "I am always struck by the fact that between 1975 and 1995--the turnover in 24 U.S. companies mainly in high technology markets--(financed by venture capital)-increased from $2 billion to $250 billion creating directly more than 1.3 million jobs.  Multiply this by 3 to 4 to get the additional indirect job effect in the U.S. economy."

The Commissioner went on to explain that "small entrepreneurial companies are the key to employment growth in the European Union.  But the conditions for their growth have been neglected for far too long.  It is now time to change this--by "thinking small" and "thinking enterprise".  To achieve that goal he pointed out what must be done to ensure the "Internal Market" of Europe is a real market that works. 

The Commissioner mentioned the need for "Reforming the -cumbersome and expensive procedures for filing for a European Patent."  Also mentioned was "A shortage of good technology prospects."

Elsewhere in the speech was an emphasis on "Unlocking Europe's creative and economic growth potential."  The Commissioner cited a vital element for an entrepreneurial Europe was "a shortage of good technology prospects."

This is something the United States does well.  Our Founding Fathers’ discovered how to unlock the creative potential of America and that was to protect the work of the inventors and authors in the Constitution.  This simple clause in the Constitution has attracted inventors and writers from all over the world. 

We have been wildly successful with inventions.  Look around you in your homes, in offices and watch the television.  We have used our patents and intellectual property to shape and mold our world and to blaze trails for the future.  We can lead the way into the next Century.  We have 10 times more intellectual property than the rest of the industrialized world combined and, the United States is on the crest of the greatest wave of technology in world history---then why throw it away?  Why throw away our lead?

The European Union is looking at the United States as a model on what should be done.  Why are they striving to develop a system like the United States while our legislators are pushing to change our patent system to mirror that of Europe and Japan?

The future is ours to grab or to throw away.  We lead technology in the next century and set the pace for the millennium or throw it away.  When big business and the transnationals claim they are making things better, just remember what the future can hold.

The fight for man to be free reflects the fight for man to invent and own his own ideas.  The transnationals are pushing us backward not forward.  We are making the choice for the next Century and the millennium now. 

The patent battle being waged in the Senate is the most important battle for the United States for the next Century other than a nuclear war.  We might lose a battle but not the war.  We must choose the freedom to grow and innovate.  I choose an American Century and American millennium--with those Greek values which created an Athens of intellectual pursuit which were the light of the world--how about you?    

mbiras64832@mypacks.com