So, prompted by this silly survey which asked Brits what made them proud to be British, I ask of my Readers: what makes you proud to be an American? (If you need any kind of inspiration, follow the link to see what kinds of things the Brits suggested.)
For once, by the way, I’d urge you all to shed your (well-founded) gloom and pessimism about the current state of affairs under Biden and his bunch of filthy Commies, and think of the good stuff — and there’s lots, let me assure you.
Keep your list to the top 10, unless you can’t. My own list will appear tomorrow.
Top Ten things I like about being an American:
1) most of my rights are recognized by the US Constitution, Bill of Rights and other Amendments. Getting the Feds, State and local governments to recognize this has been a problem for quite some time. Free Speech, right to assemble, right to petition government, freedom of the press, freedom to practice or not practice any religion, keep and bear arms continue to have some protection but need to have less infringement across the board.
2) Our Founders set a lofty set of ideals that we are still working towards today. When things are wrong, we’ll go so far as to pick up arms to liberate the oppressed
3) Vast amount of culture across our country whether it is blues, jazz, bluegrass, country & Western, cajun/zydeco, rock ‘n’ roll, lots of differnt cuisines across the country.
4) Where you start in life has little bearing on where you end up in life economically or socially. Work hard, get educated and produce a product or service that people want and you can earn a lot of money. hardwork used to be celebrated and encouraged. unfortunately the attitude of victimhood has taken root.
5) rugged individualism and self reliance have been the bedrock of our society for hundreds of years until the encouragement of government dependency from womb to tomb began to take root in the 1920s.
…and the next five things?
6) I hate to use the word, but I like the diversity of cuisine and such from other parts of the world
7) to go deeper into #6, America is a “do over” for many. Can’t improve your situation in your native country, well come to America legally, follow the law and the opportunities are everywhere you look. Even for folks born in the US, we can try, fail and try again as many times as we want. The opportunity is there for you to work hard and make your situation better for you and your children. Shake off your shackles from the old country and adopt Americanism and get on the road to prosperity. Until recently we have not had secret police dragging people off of the streets or out of their homes in the middle of the night. Probably due to the fact that we can keep and bear arms and use them as needed.
8) we need work on our economic system but the basis of competition and voluntary trade of goods and services is very sound. We just need to get over regulation by government out of the way.
9) natural beauty and variety is second to none in the world
10) entrepeneurship and innovativeness. I can even invent my own ways of spelling words!! haha. Look at the inventions and discoveries made by Americans versus the rest of the world. We need more celebration and encouragement of this. At our founding, most people were entrepeneurs either as farmers or shop owners or seasonal labor. We got a piece of land and it was ours. There were typically not mortgages, we kept all of what we earned, there wasn’t much for property tax. This all changed as people moved off of farms and into factories for work.
Wow. Tall order, Kim.
1) Americans have a strong “fuck you” streak. Call it rugged individualism, self-confidence, whatever. It came out in the drive to tame the west, in the way we decorate our cars, our bumper stickers, t-shirts, etc. Our unwillingness to comply – gun registration statutes, for examples, are routinely ignored, even in the few blue states that have them. Damn right.
2) A constitution that recognizes (not grants) fundamental human rights, and our 250 or so year progress to live up to that ideal. We’re not perfect in that regard, but a damn sight better than the rest of the world.
3) Related to #2 – the 1st Amendment: the centerpiece of the American experiment. It’s been shaky at times, and not always recognized or appreciated. It took almost a century after its writing to be taken really seriously. But it’s alive and well, for the most part. And we are, and should be, reminded regularly that the 1st protects most the speech that we disagree with.
4) The 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th Amendments. Due process is a real thing. Given that human beings, the flawed, corrupted creatures that we are, administer it, it’s often messy and frustrating. But “equal justice under law” mostly works, most of the time. It’s never perfect, and those with money and power can frustrate that justice (what else is new – anywhere?). but it beats the hell out of the alternative.
5) 2nd Amendment: ultimately, the guarantor of the rest. If this one is lost, the others are not far behind. and that’s the point. The founders understood that. Too many Americans, today accustomed to government as Uncle Sugar, rather than a threat to their liberties, do not.
OK< some redundancy.
6) Have you seen this country? It's HUGE! And it's GORGEOUS! Mountains, oceans, plains, forests, deserts, lakes, volcanic wonders, amazing wildlife, etc. Wow.
7) People – many of the best and brightest – drawn from all over the world, came (and are still coming) to create, express, grow, play, sing, invent, build, etc. They brought with them their histories, their cultures, their languages, their food and drink, and we have freely borrowed and, yes, appropriated them. Thank God. It has made all of us vastly richer, both materially and culturally. America's distinctly original music, for example, is a cross-pollination of African rhythms, melodies, and chants, combined with Scottish and Irish folk music. Primarily in Appalachia, out of it grew what became blues, jazz, country, rock, hip-hop, soul, etc. Beautiful.
8) Two world wars, and John Moses Browning. 'Nuff said.
9) After the second of those two world wars, the US found itself the most powerful military force the world had ever seen, with a fearsome weapon that no one else had, and the means to deliver it anywhere. And what did we do with this opportunity? Did we seek to conquer, acquire an empire, control? No. Mostly (but not without missteps and exceptions) we tried to make the world a better, more peaceful place.
10) What else is there to say? where else would you rather be?
1) The First Amendment
2) The Second Amendment.
3) The rest of the Constitution and the other 25 amendments.
4) The ability for anybody to become anything they want if they work hard enough at it.
5) Related to 4, above, no caste or other social strata to “keep people in their place.”
And then everything else. I’m an American by choice, not by birth; pry my U.S. passport from my cold dead hands. Imagine places like Thailand where you get 10+ years at hard labour for insulting the king, or even Canada where you can be criminally prosecuted and potentially imprisoned for speech the government disagrees with. We won’t even get into the freedom of–and from–religion debates.
We suck at some things–airline travel and allowing liberals to breed, for example, but there’s no other country on this planet that I’d ever consider living the rest of my life in. I want to visit many lands, but so long as I come back home I’m happy. Even though it’s New Jersey.
I might question the 16th, 17th and maybe the 19th & 26th Amendments – the last two as they seem to encourage groups who don’t use logic (and look at consequences), but more “the feelz” when voting – OTOH, that defect is neither universal nor exclusive to those groups.
Roy
What’s the issue with the 26th Amendment? 18 years of age is typically seen as the age of adulthood where one is responsible enough to get drafted, enter into contracts etc
JQ
Frankly, there is nothing left of the original America and nothing presently is worth being proud of. It’s gone and done but people on the right cant accept that. So they keep talking about their Constitution and getting more people to vote because NEXT TIME will be different and if we can just elect more Republicans the country is saved……
REALLY, for the love of God pull your heads out.
Unfortunately I’m just ahead of most Americans because of my life choices, after 21 yrs in military, 21yrs as a Fed civilian- training, supporting and sending the kids that replaced me out to the Global War just for the sake of War and corporate profit..
When you have seen and done what I have you wise up quick to the truth in this country and the world. WE are the bad guys to the rest of the world for the past 30 years. Yes , in some ways we are better than 3rd world shit holes but not by much really and we are working REAL hard to get down to their level of services and are succeeding gloriously.
I see folks so afraid of the threat of nuke war that is coming, that is unless the collapse gets here first. Me not so much because a Nuke war would solve most of the problems of this country, i.e. The DC shit hole, Blue city’s, Military Industrial complex, etc… The survivors and there will be way more than you think can try and start over and fix it right this time.
Tacos!
All-I-can-eat buffets!
Fiddlin’ and banjos and John Hartford and GENTLE ON MY MIND!
Western Swing musicians!
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Robert Anton Heinlein, Mark Twain!
Route 66 (the road, and the jazz standard by Bobby Troup)!
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Big hot-rods with big cubic inches, rat-rods, Booneville Salt Flats, THE ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROO BANZAI ACROSS THE EIGHTH DIMENSION!
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Hippies, Rednecks, hippie-Rednecks, and most Oregonians (other than those city-folk)!
The absurdly named ‘Pacific’ ocean, never pacifist and usually angry and always interesting!
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Those pilots and their forest-fire bombers, smoke-jumpers, their meal caterers and the contractors furnishing the portable showers… everybody coming together in a tiny remote ad hoc city for a cause!
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Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, and the crew of LONESOME DOVE!
Our perseverance, our cranky insistence on Independence and freedom and fixin’ stuff!
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And my neighbor Sam Elliott, Kurt Russell, and the crew of TOMBSTONE.
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And driving on the correct side of the road.
I’m not proud to be an American, not anymore. I’m proud to be a Texan.
Bingo.
Am I AM Proud to be a Born and Raised Southerner by the grace of God..
BTW, Never forget this thought provoking statement from Network that explains most of this, it even better than I’m mad as hell:
There is no America.
There is no democracy.
The world is a business.
Ned Beatty/Paddy Chayefsky