What makes you proud to be an American?

#194
#194
I was born here. A US citizen by birth, as were my parents, grandparents, great grandparents, forebears going back centuries. I'm a white fella, amalgamated European stock as far as I can tell. I do not deny nor minimize what European peoples have done across the globe throughout history. I can own this and still have pride in my US citizenship. The way I see it, all of us Americans are in the process of realizing a promise. We've come a long way towards it. May we keep on keepin' on.

Americans have given humanity more than modern democracy, nationhood and government by, of, and for the people. American invention cannot be accounted for in a post to VN. Telephones, powered flight, containerized shipping, semiconductors... We may not make some of these anymore, but they would not be in this world but for Americans. Freedom bore fruit. It still does.

Europeans came to North America. They believed in the divine right of kings, their own superiority, and the subjugation of "lesser peoples." By the time they got here, they'd colonized other places. After they got here, they continue to colonize other places. It took the aftermath of a world at war in the mid-20th century to teach them any humility, and, frankly, they've not learned the entire lesson, yet.

The founders of the USA were of European stock. Being in this "new world" began to change them. They took inspiration from the federation of Iroquois tribes even as they tore that federation asunder and subjugated its peoples. They declared that all men were created equal, imbued with inalienable rights, even as they held other humans in slavery and denied female citizens full citizenship. The authors of the US Constitution borrowed heavily from the constitutions of individual states and crafted a statement of vision, of who and what we still aspire to be.

Oh, yeah, we still argue among ourselves about the meaning, interpretation, and application of the promise embodied in our founding documents. We've been doing this since before they were ratified. We'll be doing this after everyone reading this post is dead. This too is part of the vision. Equality. Liberty and justice for all.

The struggle to live up to this promise has been mighty. Each citizen equal before us as before G-d. Equal in liberty. Equal in rights. Equal in the application of justice. Equal in opportunity, the pursuit of happiness. We have struggled mightily, civilly, violently among ourselves, and yet, we have come together to defend this promise from outside threats. We have saved the world from tyranny more than once. We are imperfect, but we will not yield this promise, this vision that we struggle to realize.

Manifest destiny, Tulsa, lynchings, Jim Crow... Women didn't have universal suffrage until 1920 (thank you, Tennessee). Arguably, most of our brief history, we have not embodied equal rights, equal justice, equal opportunity. Show me better in this world. Show me a people who dare greatness and strive for it through generations. Show me a people striving as we do.

A Frenchman beheld us and envisioned a great monument, a great statue of Liberty. Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The rest of the world still sees us this way, even those poisoned with despite recognize our power. Our power is not in planes, and ships, and weapons systems. These would not be but for who we are, the promise we represent.

Yes, speak to me the litany of flaws that is America and Americans. I will not deny them, even the ones with which I disagree. I will remind you that as an American, I am free to disagree. I will not be imprisoned by a tyrant for doing so. Yes, I am proud to be an American, one of the imperfect strivers, one of the darers in the arena of human life, but more than pride is my gratitude. Truly, I am fortunate to be a citizen of the USA.
 
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