On the topic of patriotism... and whether Lee Greenwood can still bring a tear to your eye.
On the cusp of our Nation's 250th birthday...
The following was my response to a $hit-poster in my town Facebook group....
While I doubt the validity of this statement for reasons, I'll say that I'm as American as one gets, including the native American ancestry that I can only hope was the result of a happy union. My ancestors came on the Mayflower, and subsequent voyages. I have multiple revolutionary war patriots in my ancestry. I am proud of them, and my heritage. That I came from people who were seeking freedom from various types of persecution. To make the voyage across the Atlantic for a better life. And then, a century or so later, their grandchildren fought against a tyrannical government, literally laid their life on the line, and helped create a new country. Those same ideals... the ones our country was founded on have become conflated in recent years.
Pride is a transient emotion. If you asked me as a child, if I was proud of my country, I would answer yes, without hesitation.
I want to be proud of it. I am proud of our Democratic ideals, and the role our country has played in being a beacon of freedom for so many, seeking it's refuge. And yet. We find ourselves in this moment in history. And I cannot, with good conscience, say that I'm proud of my country's actions. Our tax money. Our apathy. They are forms of complicity. And this person has the audacity to say this, as though the bigger crime to humanity than the war, is my reluctance to be happy about it. As though the war was popular (no one wanted it!). As though the calls, and protests mean anything to our "elected" officials. If and when my voice begins to matter at all, again, over corporate donors, and the county becomes less the LaCroix of Democracy...I might feel proud again. Until then...