BitaTruble
Posts: 9779
Joined: 1/12/2006 From: Texas Status: offline
|
I've been reading this thread and some things make me chuckle, some make me shake my head in disbelief and some things speak to my gut. Sure I love my country and I think for being relatively young, we, as a nation, haven't done that bad. But, come on. A lot of this is like expecting a two year old to know Algebra. At least let us get into grammar school, get some maturity behind us.. let us live a little. Frankly, I don't think it's all that balanced a view to compare the US to a country which has been around for a couple of thousand years more than we have and then bash us when we are lacking. In a couple of thousand years, we may be doing a lot more right, too! If we don't grow up and mature then hit us over the head for not taking advantage of our own potential. We, as a nation, are going to screw up.. a lot. It's part of the growing process. Every nation goes through it. Some never get passed the toddler stage, others take great leaps and bounds and continue to do so. We can look at other countries and see what works, and in time, if it's going to work here.. the citizens will make it happen, one way or the other. If it doesn't work, much like the Edsel, it will go away... part of history, even a sour part of history but used only to remember what doesn't work and avoid continually repeating it. Being proud of one's country is not a bad thing and I would hope that each nation is composed of beings who are proud of living within it's borders and if it's not, I would hope those citizens have the opportunity to change what's not working. Certainly the US gives such opportunities to it's citizens. If other countries don't, then that's something that they can look to for their own growth. That's their choice to make, not ours. The world is old. Man has been around for thousands and thousands of years in hundreds of countries around the globe. Since America became a nation great things have happened and horrible things have happened, both through our own doing and through the doings of others. We can take pride in our greatness and should be humbled by those things which are not so great. We can acknowledge our accomplishments and take responsibilities for our actions and that has nothing to do with any nationality. Every citizen in the world has that same choice in regard to their own country. I'm not in the America love it or leave it category.. I'm simply an American who does the best I can with what I've got and try to leave the world a little bit better than I found it. I think 'most' people try to leave things better than they find them. I know my parents did.. and my grandparents did and my great grandparents, two of who were not born in this country in the first place. If you're Norwegian, you can love your country and try to fix what you think needs fixing, if you're Swedish, Japanese, Iraqi or yes, American .. if you are whatever, you can do the same thing even if it just means you recycle. Hell, let's face it.. it doesn't really matter what country anyone lives in anyway, we all share a common planet and we are all, ultimately, human and like I said in another thread.. if humans are involved, things are messy. Celeste
_____________________________
"Oh, so it's just like Rock, paper, scissors." He laughed. "You are the wisest woman I know."
|