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

[faireraven.livejournal.com]

Because this country was set up so that we could work to change the problems that exist.

[wilhelmina-d.livejournal.com]

Because the most fringe groups get the most press, so we're not really all that bad, just some of us.

[rionnkelly.livejournal.com]

Can't think of anything off the top of my head at the moment to elevate your depressed patriotism however, once when I had a song stuck in my head, my dad got in my face and started singing "It's a Small World after all..."

Got the original offending song out of my head, anyway.

[culfinriel.livejournal.com]

I think it's nationalism, or maybe jingoism, not patriotism; hence, the problem. You can be proud of individual Americans for their accomplishments (Dr. Charles Drew, Annie Sullivan), you can be proud of ideas (the Bill of Rights, public education), you can be proud of moments when our leaders did something extraordinary (George Washington refusing to be king, Harry Truman integrating the army). Nothing's perfect, but you can still find something that represents the best of the idea of America.

[blueeowyn.livejournal.com]

The US has over its history been something to be proud to be a part of. While there have been certain lapses in certain areas at times, the NET actions of the country (as a country) have been positive.

• Treating new citizens fairly
  
• Encouraging creativity
  
• Encouraging an educated populace
  
• Voting
  
• Checks and balances within the government (ok, so it doesn't work out the way it should but the idea and the ideal are still there)
  
• Freedom to speak out against the government or against a person. Freedom to work any job you can qualify for (no caste system). Freedom of religion.
  
• Innocent until proven guilty with a jury of your peers
  

Now, I realize that a lot of these things aren't as strong as we would like but they are a part of what America is (or at least should be) and that counts for something. Hopefully the current threats to the freedoms will be a temporary blip.

[javasaurus.livejournal.com]

All I'm getting from any of these responses is that I should be proud of our heritage. But if an alien comes down from space and sees who we are now, what we are now, as a country, are they going to think, "gee, there's a country that should be proud."?

I do not think we should derive pride from our forefathers' accomplishments, unless we can live up to them. I don't think we are living up to them. I can't think of a single example, and none of the above has helped. But thanks for trying.

[rsteachout.livejournal.com]

I agree that what people are feeling is nationalism, not patriotism. Patriotism runs deeper than the "rah, rah" that often gets put out there to show "patriotism."

Why be proud?

The U.S. feeds more of the world outside of its own citizens than any other nation. This, despite our decreasing number of farmers and farmland. The U.S. helped teach and train many nations in more efficient and productive agricultural methods, helping those nation to not only feed their own people, but to develop enough capacity to export.

Our economy, much as we like to obsess and worry about the negatives, is one of the strongest in the world, and, over the long-haul of decades, arguably the strongest in the world. We worry about our unemployment rate of 5.whatever percent, yet that is one of the lowest unemployment rate of any industrial nation, and, again, on a long-term basis, the lowest rate consistently. That means that we create jobs for and employ more people. Canada would give its eye teeth to have a rate as low as we do (they have for decades had 3 - 5 percent more unemployment than the U.S.). Most European nations don't even come close to us in providing jobs for their citizens. Ireland (I think) has us beat recently, but that was only *after* adopting U.S. market principles.

We are still the nation of choice for most people for immigration. Why? Because we offer more liberty and opportunity than anywhere else in the world. My mother asked some friends who had immigrated from India why they had wanted to come to the U.S. They told her, "We saw on the news reports and shows about American, that even your poor people are fat." Yes, *we* know that is due to inability to buy the most nutritious foods (and there are skinny poor people in the U.S.); but in most nations the typical poor person is skeletal, not fat. We allow more people to start businesses and pursue their dreams. Here, hard work and committment are still rewarded, and people have a realistic hope of achieving their dream. More Americans own their own home than ever before in our history and our level of homelessness (as bad as it is) is still lower than anywhere else.

People here are *still* protected in their rights to criticize the government or to express their ideas, and to pursue their political agendas -- even ones that endanger our nation's security. Look at the difference in the laws passed after 9-11 and the London bombings. We passed the Patriot Act, but we didn't pass laws to target Muslims and deport them. We made efforts to ensure that Muslims remained and free to practice their beliefs and express their political opinions. After the London bombings in Britain, the British government passed laws specifically targeting Muslims and making it easier to deport "extremist" elements of the Muslim community. Within one month of passage, the first group was deported under that law.

We are one of the most generous nations in the world. After the tsunami, the U.S.'s initial government assistance offer was more than the rest of the world's governments initial offers combined. As the need grew, so did our assistance in proportion to the need. Government assistance from the U.S., although no longer exceeding the total of all other nation's assistance, still is the largest single block of assistance provided. When you consider both government and private assistance, the U.S. again far outstrips all the rest of the worlds aid. And we do this type of thing ALL THE TIME. We send out volunteers around the world to teach and build and heal and care for.

If we don't see what about our nation we should be proud of, perhaps it is because we have become so accustomed to the good life and freedoms we have that we take them for granted.

Do we have our faults. Oh, yes. We can be arrogant, obtuse to other cultures, and self-centered. But 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.