[Sixstrings]

The Lee Greenwood song, "proud to be an American," was on the radio today and I just turned it. Not because I didn't like the song, my feeling was more that all I can think of is everything that's wrong with this country.

I don't "hate America," but honestly, what exactly are we celebrating this coming 4th of July? Are we celebrating the completed de-industrialization of America? Are we celebrating the growing income disparity? Are we celebrating the millions out of work due to globalism and enrichment of the banskter class? Are we celebrating a polluted environment, the forced march to extinction of so many species of animals, the chemically toxic consumer products in our homes and bodies?

Are we celebrating the fact that so many Americans don't have health coverage? Obama gave a speech the other day, and a hug was the most he could offer a woman in the crowd who has no healthcare, is riddled with cancerous tumors, has been denied disability and doesn't think she'll live another 9 years to get MediCare.

Are we celebrating all the dead teenagers who've given their lives for more oil, and the consumerist system that oil supports? Are we celebrating all the returning vets screwed up from the war, coming home wounded phsyically and even worse with PTSD?

Essentially, Independance Day is a celebration of our simple freedoms. And those freedoms are profound, and we should cherish them. I am in fact very grateful I was born an American and not North Korean (god fobid). But even while celebrating simple freedom, I can see the writing on the wall for that too -- that even our cherished constitutional freedoms are being relentlessly eroded by America's ruling Corporations and oligarchs.

Anyway, happy 4th, /rant off. Pass me my Freedom Fries and hot dogs.

[Daniel_Plainview]

America has reached a low point in its history. I'm freaked out by the level of corruption and stupidity ... of incompetence and greed ... of short-sightedness and folly.

But I haven't totally written it off. There is still a shred of hope that America will once again emerge as a place worthy of pride and honour. The final verdict is not yet in ... but things have never looked so grave.

So I've suspended my American pride. If things get much worse, I may have to jump ship.

[TheAntiDoomer]

So I've suspended my American pride. If things get much worse, I may have to jump ship.

get hopping then! see ya!

[Sixstrings]

So I've suspended my American pride. If things get much worse, I may have to jump ship.

get hopping then! see ya!

Ironically, it's in our genes to do just that -- get hopping. We Americans are pioneer stock; we're the restless souls who weren't happy with the status quo in Europe, and made the ocean trek to this "Shining City on a Hill." And when life got crowded and corrupt back East, we headed out West to the frontiers.

It's not in our American soul to suffer living in a failed system. But now, there are no frontiers left. A nation born and comprised of immigrants has nowhere left to emigrate. Unless you're investing tycoon Jim Rogers, of course, who brags on CNBC all the time how Asia is the land of the future and he's moved his whole family over there.

[jasonraymondson]

Lets invade asia and give them blankets

[seldom_seen]

It's not in our American soul to suffer living in a failed system. But now, there are no frontiers left. A nation born and comprised of immigrants has nowhere left to emigrate. Unless you're investing tycoon Jim Rogers, of course, who brags on CNBC all the time how Asia is the land of the future and he's moved his whole family over there.

hah

[Mike Morin]

I can sum it up in three letters, WMD...

World Manifest Destiny.

Latin America is going socialist for good reason. The Spanish settlers did not commit genocide and did not steal 100% of the good land. The Bolivarian/Socialist movement is appealing to the indigenous Americans, those who have not forgotten how to give an honest days work. That is why they will defeat Capitalist US.

Like the slogan says, "US Out of America".

Now on the bright side, once we had a Labor Movement and a tiny socialist/communist one.

USAers need to take a long hard look at themselves and come to terms with their Imperialist history and their genocidal, ecocidal, suicidal way of life.

Truth?

Justice?

The "American" Way?


MM

[WhatMeWorry]

Lets invade asia and give them blankets

Coated with swine flu? LOL It worked once!

[green_achers]

Well there's a reason pride's considered a mortal sin in Christianity. I find it's a lot more mentally healthy to try not to get caught up in the pride thing.

Now, I'm not saying I'm free of pride or any other sin, but for most of my life, my fellow Americans have made it pretty easy.

[blukatzen]

Part of my family helped to found this nation, literally. The father's side came from Germany, where they had settled, first coming from Switzerland, after they were thrown out and persecuted for being Mennonite. (at that time considered the *wrong* type of Protestant faith).

After seeing despots and princes kill many of their fellows during a 30 year war and before that, endured recurring bouts of the Bubonic plague, they were ready to shake the European dirt off their boots and come to this land to try to forget all that and live in peace and harmony for themselves and those they commingled with here...the English, the Native Americans (Leni Lenape tribe), and others.

So, when the despotism rang true here, begrudingly, they saw that once more, they must stand against it. Some in my own family (Col. John Siegfried, who was a quartermaster of George Washington in PA.) was charged with asking the Penn-Deitsch, whose War it was not, to supply the Army with blankets, food, horses, anything! Many Penn-Deitsch had figured to stay out of harms' way, and some knew that if they didn't stand up to this last despot's claim, they'd never stand a chance.

Today, I see that too many have not stood up and said "Hold it, that's FAR ENOUGH". I tried to think about how it was for my ancestors, how scared they must have been. Wondering what was to become of their lives, way back then. Wondering if they'd be shot, or killed, or hung. Wondering if war would contribute to starving once again, or if they'd have their lands confiscated.

I wonder if I can be worthy of them, when the time comes for ME to stand up to tyranny personally. Am I proud of being an American. I am proud of them, and their dreams. Am I proud of America today, not the government, but of the common folk, I am, for I believe that many of the dreams my ancestors had still live in them today. Just to live well, do right by their Deity, their community, their employer/their own 2 hands if need be, their families, and live well, quietly.
To contribute when needs be, when their Country needs them, in what capacity they can serve, whether it is a Policeman, an election judge, a soldier, a forester, or a Statesmen (whom we have too little of today.).

I've always thought "what can I do"? "How can I serve?"...my way is to teach gardening skills. My family's farm is still teaching "gardening skills" as the Rodale family bought it years ago, and their Institute was the Siegfried family farm, founded so long ago, in the early days of Colonial life.

It's what I guess I will always do. I am proud to be an American, because it is my duty to live up to the finest ideals my Ancestors DID live up to. May I be worthy of them and their accomplishments!

Blu

[Roy]

get hopping then! see ya!

The fascists in this country are strong and they don't like dissent or questioning of the dominant paradigm.

They always kick in with an ad-hom if they don't like what someone says. -- Or "my country, like it or leave it".

I thank Hawkman every day that these types were usurped in 1776 and defeated in 1789.

Its ironic that they have become such a force in our country today. They exist in both wings of the War Party.

Cognitive dissonance is their bread and butter.

They are the antithesis of what it means to be an American and they make me sick.

I am proud of the ideals that this country is founded on (like personal liberty and non-intervention), but I am not proud of the actions of my government. Not one bit.

We have assumed the role of 1930's Germany with our bullying and militarism. Using our currency monopoly to tax the rest of the world into paying for our excesses.

It will come back to bite us all in the ass. I feel certain about that. I don't know whether it will be a currency related retaliation or a major military setback (which seems likely in Afghanistan due to the supply situation there), but we are certainly vulnerable to either due to the myopic sociopathic corporate tools running this country.

And when it does, these unquestioning drones will be the first ones to get what's coming to them due to their inability to understand historical precedent and their inability to adapt.

Cheers.

[Grautr]

I think there are many things to be proud of, personal achievments or those of people close to you, but pride in your country, whatever land, is misplaced.

[mark]

Someone once said, “those who live by the sword, die by the sword.”

You don't suppose he was talking about us, do ya'?

I'm not predicting our demise but I am certain that our so-called “American way of life” is doomed. And good riddance. Why? Just look what we have become.

There will be a grand, new nation to replace the putrid rotting corpse festering where once was a magnificent shining star. We are fortunate to live in these times … to experience the death of the old and the birth of the new.

[FoolYap]

I feel a bit like America is my increasingly dysfunctional extended family. Every year the annual family picnic gets more strident and embarrassing. Cousins drive up in brand new Escalades; alternate between bragging about their latest bling and bitching about how they're behind on their payments; try to cop a feel on whomever's nearest; drink too much; upchuck on the dessert table; and fall down and lay snoring on someone else's picnic blanket.

Many family members seem to come for the show, and spend their time people-watching and grazing contentedly on the buffet. They'll use their cell phones to take snapshots of the passed-out cousin with his pants down around his ankles, and text them to friends, going "OMG! L0ser!"

The interesting activity happens out on the margins, when you become aware of small groups of the family off by themselves, under a shade tree. Some of them people-watch too, sipping higher-class beers while congratulating themselves that they aren't the drunken cousins swilling generic.

But some groups are talking quietly about things of consequence. If you listen, you'll realize that these are some of the people who represent the aspects of your extended family that make you proud to be part of it. They seem like a shrinking minority of it. But it's not all drunken vain stupidity in the family, and those are the parts you latch onto if you don't want to change your name and move away.

--Steve

[AgentR]

I feel honored and humbled to be an American, but also sad to be witness to the end of that which made it so unique. We're gradually becoming just another government dominated disaster with occasional elections to see which idiot get to pull the chain on the engines horn.

The decline is depressing... To pretend the decline is not happening in its own way in other countries is foolish.

[coyote]

"Proud" is the wrong word. Pride I reserve for good things that I have accomplished personally. Being an American isn't in that category. What did I ever do to be an American, besides having the good fortune to be born here? I suppose I can be a little proud of some of the ways I've participated, the votes, the public discussions - but other than that being an American has all been pretty much handed to me.

Proud? No - lucky.

[jbrovont]

I'm proud to be an American, and of my heritage. I'm embarrassed and deeply angered by the shame that's been brought on the United States by those claiming to be American Patriots while systematically destroying the ideals at the core of that heritage.

Freedom from tyrany isn't a reality - it's an idea, and to me the flag does still stand for that, even if it's been dragged through the mud, stepped on and spit on by the plutocrats. Try as they might, imo they really can't take that away.

[Ronin]

"Patriotism is a virtue of the vicious" Oscar Wild

[pablonite]

I don't "hate America," but honestly, what exactly are we celebrating this coming 4th of July?

Independence Day is just a Hollywood movie that portrays Americans rallying together to fight an outisde enemy with their military industrial complex while the world cheers them on!

If you don't support them then you are unpatriotic and probably a terrorist yourself.

It was that easy to turn 1700's America completely upside down in a little over 200 years and it didn't take them long to get started on that.

"I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." James Madison (1809–1817)

[JJ]

I was born here.

One day, while living in the Philippines, an Australian doctor said to me; "you should thank God you were born with white skin."

my roommate, who was an ex-vietnam drill instructor, said "today".