Proud to be an American
Don Quixote on Apr 02 2006 at 7:17 pm | Filed under: America
DQ again. I'm a NASCAR fan, but I normally TiVo the races and skip the long opening ceremonies. Today, there was nothing much else on, so I watched the race and the ceremonies live. I was struck by the pure pride in America that infused those ceremonies. It's sad that almost the only time we see real pride in America is in a time-eating ceremony before a sporting event that is televised mainly to provide time for more commercials.
We have so much to be proud of in America. We have done more good in the world, by our actions and by our example, that any other nation in history. We judge ourselves harshly, but only because we set a higher standard for ourselves than any nation ever has. We make excuses for everyone else, but never for ourselves. Others can teach hate and target innocent civilians, and we tsk-tsk but do not really condemn, because we do not expect more of others. Others attack our most sacred institutions, and we sympathize rather than defend. But let our soldiers or politicians misstep and we are unceasing in our condemnation.
I'm proud to be an American. I'm proud we hold ourselves to the highest possible standard. I only wish we didn't act like we're ashamed of who we are and what we have accomplished. And I wish we held others to the same high standard.
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5 Responses to “Proud to be an American”
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Can I give you an AMEN!? So very true.
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Thank you, DQ. There are too many Americans who are reflexively anti American. I hate to see otherwise astute people sunk in a pathological cynicism, pessimism and denigration of their own country, as if every weakness of human kind was a distinctly American innovation and the world would some how be pristine without America.
Nascar had some kind of before game program where they rode in Abrams tanks and shot the main cannon, along with the fifty cals. They looked like they were having fun. I don’t think the metrosexuals and the New York Times would have had as much fun playing with military hardware as these Nascar hosts.
DQ:
If you could get the public schools to teach that view of the good ‘ol U.S. of A., this would be a far better place to live, and I’d have a lot more hope for the future of our grandkids and the world they’re going to be living in.
But cultural relativism, and the consequent negative evaluations of American motives and actions that it apparently entails, has infected the teachers at K-12 and college levels. Our kids are all being taught that it is we Americans who have been and are the problem in this world. This is not going to be good in the long term……..for the U.S., for Western Civilization, and for the world generally.
Sorry to be pessimistic, but there it is.