It’s kinda weird, I was watching TV the other night, and someone on the tube was talking about how “wrong” it was that people were talking like “they were ashamed to be an American.” Got me to thinking, because I *am* ashamed to be an American right now, and I don’t think that it’s wrong. Sure, I’m proud to have a voice in my government, I’m glad that I have the freedom to say stuff like “the President is a moron,” and all in all, I’m really happy to live in a relatively free state, with relatively few restrictions on my personal freedoms, in an innovative and creative society. However, *right now*, can I really say that I’m *proud* to be an American? No.
Why? Blame it on Bush & the Administration. Can I feel proud I’m a member of a society that thinks that the UN is “irrelevant” when it doesn’t suit their whims? Can I feel proud that my country is pushing for war in a country on the other side of the globe for reasons they can’t even decide on themselves, much less convince anyone else of? Am I proud that the best evidence we can come up with is vague, or plagiarized, or easily contradicted, yet we still push headlong for war, despite the protests of our own people? Am I proud that our President wasn’t elected? Am I proud that our freedoms are being squashed, the public manipulated like a herd of sheep, and the class divisions in this country getting larger by the minute? Of course not.
Is that wrong? I think that you’d find a lot of Americans would spit something like, “Love it or leave it,” or, “If you don’t like it, get the hell out.” I would think that there’s nothing less American than not voicing your opinion, and staying put in the hopes that one can make a difference. That’s one of the great benefits of American society – the freedom to dissent, and the freedom to express your utter disgust with the leaders in charge. You are responsible for them, because (at least most of the time) you put them there. Sure, Bush is a pitiful, brain-dead pretender to the “throne,” but it’s the American thing to do to tell him that we think he’s a failure, and that he makes us ashamed. Ashamed to be an American, and proud of it.