I was always proud of my country when I was a kid, but I later became disillusioned in college after the events of 9/11 and the extremely disappointing and embarrassing outcome of the 2000 and 2004 elections. This combined with some very liberal education resulted in what I can only describe as a kind of low-grade loathing of every day America. We, the liberal college kids, all declared how embarrassed we were to be associated with the United States, how ashamed we were of the reputation we had internationally.
Then, after spending a great deal of time learning about the country from the safety of my liberal classroom, I spent some time in southwest Mexico. I was surrounded by a lot of poverty, and by a lot of passive acceptance that the government did not care about the fate of the Mexican people. The only people I found living anything close to the ‘‘American dream’’ where both doctors who worked 7 days a week and spent an average of two hours a day at home with their family. In Mexico, I found myself longing for everything from a clean bathroom to a grilled cheese sandwich.
I traveled to six countries that summer, and I think for every moment I spent off U.S. soil, I gained a little more respect for the United States. We live in such profound luxury that here it’s possible to live below the poverty line and still have cable TV and a full stomach. Of all the people I know who have been homeless, all of them owned cars. I am not ignorant, and in fact very critical, of the failures of our infrastructure, our economy, our stupid foreign policies, but those who decry that we live in an oppressive, fascist dictatorship could use a good smack with the clue-by-four.
This country is beautiful, for about a million different reasons. For one thing there is the sheer diversity of our people – the difference in culture on the West Coast vs. the East Coast, the cross section of white people and black people and 1st, 2nd, 3rd generation immigrants who compose our populations but who all seem to love the good in this country equally. There are our astonishing natural landscapes, from the sand dunes in northern Michigan to the vastness of the Grand Canyon. There is the technology and the vast number of people in this country who are privileged enough to have access to it. There is freedom of speech and freedom of the press. There is the Wall St. Journal, The Washington Post, CNN, and yes, goddamn it, Fox News. There are our people, who are friendly and fun-loving and outgoing whether you’re in a small town in the Midwest or Midtown Manhattan. And speaking of Manhattan, I am in awe of the vast empire that is New York City.
I don’t think there is a single act that could make me ashamed to be an American. I think the majority of our citizens share the same values and hopes for our country. I think many of the decisions made on our behalf in the U.S. government are wrongheaded and at times blatantly ignorant, but I don’t believe it ever comes from a sense of ill-will. We all want our children to be educated, our poor to be fed, our moral and religious rights to be protected, our economy to be strong.
I am in fact becoming so happy to be living here, at this moment in history, at this location, that I’m starting to get really irritated when people from other countries cast Americans in a negative light. It reminds me of the same blind antipathy that led me, as a 21 year old know-it-all, to declare I was embarrassed to be an American. It comes from not really understanding what it means to be a U.S. citizen, all the sociopolitical complexities and the history that makes up who we are as a people. After a while it becomes just so much meaningless, uninformed prattle.
So yeah, I guess the answer to the OP’s question is, ‘‘All the time.’’ Driving down our paved roads, talking on my cell phone, casting my vote in the primary, watching CNN, hearing the national anthem, looking at the rubble that once was the World Trade Center in the middle of a bustling, living city that has learned to move on, being stranded on a delayed aircraft, driving through the industrial wastelands of Newark, mowing the lawn, passing the local church, going to the gym, or watching one of our awesome movies – I am proud to be an American. Most of us are tough, hard-working, practical, outgoing, fun-loving people. We might not have the cleanest streets, the best public transport system or the most brilliant government strategy, but we’ve got a lot. A damn lot. And perhaps most importantly, we’re always trying to improve.