Pride in the USA?

[javasaurus]

I had an earworm this morning. You know, a song that pops in and won't leave you alone for a while? It was a song about having pride in the USA, and I started thinking, "Why?" Now I'm in a funk.

Pride should stem from accomplishment, from leadership, from ability. I think what some people feel now is patriotism which has been mislabled as pride.

Give me some real reasons to feel pride in our country. I need 'em.

Comments

[javasaurus.livejournal.com]

The question of nationalism vs. patriotism wasn't really the point, though I think I will start a separate post about it.

Outreach food programs and general generosity sound like good reasons to be proud of our country. Certainly we do supply more food and money to other countries than any other. But we still burn tons upon tons of excess grain, and as a percentage of GNP, our government provides less foreign aid than any other major economic power, only 0.1%. Which would you hold higher -- the poor person who shares half of his sandwich, or the multibillionaire who scatters his crumbs? Despite the fact that we are the strongest economy (for now – it’s changing in favor of eastern Asia), we continue to be behind many European countries in education, treatment of the poor, healthcare. Despite having only 5% unemployment, more than 40% of Americans are without health care. Though America spends far more than any other country on health care, they rank only 37th out of 191 countries in quality of health care (according to a 2000 WHO report). That’s pretty pathetic considering that most of those 191 countries are not industrialized. Also, according to a report by the USDA and the US Census Bureau, 11.9% of American households are “food insecure” and a third of those were “hungry.”

I'm not sure where you get your unemployment numbers. Looking at the 42 G20 countries (yes, 42. I'm counting the EU countries separately, including the two slated for entry in 2007), as of 2005 the US was tied for 9th lowest unemployment at 5.1%, while Canada is at 6.8%, not nearly 3 to 5 per cent higher. The United Kingdom, Ireland, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Norway, and Slavakia all have lower unemployment, and Austria is tied with us. (based on 2005 CIA factbook statistics). Also, the US level has fluxuated between 3.8% and 10.8% over the last forty years, with 9% as recently as 1995. The number fluxuate a lot, and having it go much below 4 to 5% is actually bad for the country. Rather than look at how many people are employed, I'd ask how many are sufficiently, happily, productively employed, and we really can't measure that. IIRC, a major criticism of Bush Jr. was that employment levels may have improved during his first term, but the quality of the jobs went down as people took whatever they could get.

As for rights being protected after 9/11, do you really believe that? Have you forgotten the Presidential comments that anyone who speaks out against the Patriot Act should be considered suspect? Have your forgotten that the Patriot Act removed the checks/balances system of needing court approval before violating personal privacy? Have you forgotten the absence in the Patriot Act of any wording against racial profiling, and that hundreds of Muslims were rounded up and detained? Have you forgotten the violations of the Geneva Convention and civil liberties in relation to Guantanemo Bay?

we are also generous, productive, caring, and idealistic. And we still lift up the torch of freedom and champion its causes and invite others to share its benefits. Our founding patriots lit that torch, but we have maintained it -- not always well -- but to the best of our abilities and understanding.

That's something to be proud of.

I fear that we base our pride on the accomplishments of our forefathers, who were explorers and inventors, seekers of wisdom and spreaders of rights, that we scatter our crumbs, our leavings and let the needy pick them up. We have so much bread that our crumbs outweigh the loaves given by others, and so we are proud. Pride should not come from giving more than others, it should come from giving as much as we can, from giving enough. Pride should not come from making more money, but from making a difference.