The following is like one of those numbered lists that people like to send to others via email, copying several dozen of their closest friends when they do. However, I can assure you that it’s not actually one of those lists, because just today I wrote it myself.
Reasons to be proud to be an American
More of us voted for Al Gore than for George W. Bush.
We spell without all those unnecessary U’s, allowing us to type faster.
We don’t need to keep announcing where we’re from when travelling abroad.
Linda Tripp still can’t find work.
We still won’t let G. Gordon Liddy vote.
Our paper currency comes in a uniform, soothing green color, and some of it has scary imagery on the back that spooks foreigners and fundies alike.
We keep all our good TV shows and movies, exporting only crap.
49 states are pissing off an increasing number of Texans enough to make them want to leave the country.
“God Bless America” isn’t our national anthem, and Irving Berlin never liked that song very much, anyway.
Our noble restraint from military retaliation against Canada, despite their having unleashed both Bryan Adams and Céline Dion.
It’s still legal to burn the flag.
We’re one of the few nations with research stations in Antarctica that hasn’t felt compelled to make a territorial claim.
We’re the only nation that’s landed men on the moon, and we don’t claim that territory, either. (Ironically, you can’t burn the American flag on the moon.)
Still no official national language!
We invented the paper clip, the filter-tip cigarette and the cotton gin, but we feel no obnoxious compulsion to bore the world with these facts.
I’ve got a funny feeling this thread’s going to wind up in the Pit…
Other than that, I’d say this qualifies as mundane and pointless alright.
Just out of curiosity: why should one be proud of something one did not earn? I do realise that in times of need, the solidarity of countrymen can be a comforting thing. The world has been witness to that just recently, in case of the US. And there is of course nothing wrong with that. But in all seriousness, how logical or common is it to be proud of a nationality? I don’t have that, I guess. I mean, I cheer my lungs out if our football team scores. I’m happy to live here, it’s a great country. But pride is an emotion reserved for achievements, IMHO.
Maybe if you’re from one of those flat, scared-of-the-ocean countries, but when you’re from Switzerland, you learn to walk tall, hold your head up high, and eat smelly cheese with a smile.
As each individual, true, we have not have earned it, but neither has the fan of the football team who scores and wins. There is much pride there as well.
As an American people, we contribute in our own way to a great nation. And to other great nations.
Harley Davidson Big Twins. Screw the 883 Sportster.
The moon landing, or at least a reasonable facsimile thereof.
Some of us actually understand the Infield-fly Rule.
“Hail to the Chief,” the song that plays whenever the President appears publicly, can have the lyrics changed to “I am the president, and I can have you killed.”
Groundskeeper Willie, from The Simpsons, once referred to the French as “cheese-eating surrender monkeys.”
President gets into hot water for lying about getting illicit nookie, or playing dirty tricks on the opposition, or getting a couple hundred thou in unusual deals, but not for making 15,000 citizens disappear or embezzling $2 Billion off the defense budget for the First Lady to spend on shoes
A People who are not really interested in throwing their considerable weight around the world unless and until directly attacked.
Moronic political, religious and academic leaders allowed to make ases of themselves w/o fear of official reprisal, allowing the People to see them for what they are.
Personally, I’m proud of the acheivements of my ancestors and my forebears. I’m proud that they created such a wonderfully free country, a place where freedom is still the ultimate objective of living here. I’m proud of every single person over the last 300+ years who worked and sweated and bled just to make it to these shores and be able to live where he or she would have the most freedom and opportunity. I’m proud of my countrymen who created this country, the first great experiment in democracy, out of an oddball assortment of contentious colonies, turning them into a society who’s government is a continuously changing collection of its own citizens, who are all free to debate and argue about the best direction for us to move as a people.
I contend that one can have pride in one’s peers and associates, in one’s ancestors and predecessors and that is the pride I have in my country, because those people are who my country is.
But if I go with your contention that pride is to be reserved for acheivements, then I can STILL be proud of my country, because I work every day, in my own small ways, doing my part to build this country into something even greater. I strive to participate in the running of this country by voting for people I believe will do the best job representing both my interests and the interests of the country. I work hard to be as well-informed as I can about the issues I am concernecd with, so I’ll be better able to make judgements about who and what I am voting for.
Sorry, Daowajan if I’ve turned this into “a load of bullplop”, but I firmly believe that America is more than just “a nice place to live”.
Aah, but it’s an Australian invention. OK, so we also invented inconsequential little things like the black box flight recorder, but who cares about those? I’m talking about the ones that really count!
An ex-actor became President of the USA, an ex-pro wrestler is govenor of Minnesota, Clint Eastwood was mayor of Carmel, and Sonny Bono was elected to Congress. Only in America, baby.
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