Proud To Be An American? YES, But......

Yesterday I saw a bumper sticker on the back of a pickup truck that read, "IF YOU CAN READ THIS, THANK A TEACHER; IF YOU CAN READ THIS IN ENGLISH, THANK A VETERAN." My first thought was what would be so bad if I was reading that in another language besides English? And wasn't' it some European who developed English, not the Americans? So what does me being able to read the bumper sticker in English have anything whatsoever to do with anything. Was the bumper sticker insinuating that I have all the liberties afforded Americans, one of which is to read English, because of the sacrifice of a Vet? Or did it mean a US Vet brought English over to America sometime ago? But it couldn't be that because the British I believe, brought over English. And it certainly were Vets that fought the British to gain our Independence, but the British still speak English today, so what's that got to do with America? Or, could it just be the arrogance that Americans have thinking we are the only worthwhile country in the world that speaks English? Ahhhhh............I think I have my answer.

This Fourth of July 2007, US Independence Day, I will state vehemently, "I AM PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!" I love my country and the freedoms I have here. I can freely write what I write here without fear of being arrested. I can bash my president, the imbecile that he is, without fear of the gestapo rushing into my door. But there are many freedoms, which I have discussed in other texts, that I do not yet have. But as a proud American, I also realize that I am not better than anyone in any other nation! I am not so arrogant to believe my way of life is the best necessarily.

Americans are really fed a lot of good old fashioned HOGWASH! Instead of being taught as children that we are part of the world community, we are told time and time again that America is the only way of life, that Americans are somehow better than anyone else in the world, and that if you do not live as America says you should, you are somehow less a person. I often wonder if other children in other nations are taught to be so adamant about just how good they are. Well, I know the Soviet Russian kids were, and of course, the Nazi youth were! MMMMM.......are we as Americans no better than Soviet Russia or Nazi Germany? Why, yes, of course we are.....because we're Americans! That makes propaganda and brainwashing OK then.

PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN???? YES. But also proud to be part of this great big old world! Proud to admit that I am no better than anyone else, maybe just luckier because I happen by chance to have been born into a free society. So......should I thank a Vet, or should I just thank God, or Fate, or Karma, or whatever it was that put me here?