Sunday, July 04, 2004

Happy De-colonization Day

I was trying to tell DH the Brit just what makes me proud to be an American...and I couldn't think of a damn thing. We're not the only "free" country in this world, and about the only thing we can really boast about is good baseball, lots of medals in the Olympics, a lot of McDonalds and Starbucks, and being fat. I feel like an unworthy American. There's obviously something that makes these Americans patriotic, and I hope it's not that just ALL of them don't seem to notice the rest of the world. I'll have to think on it.

Oh oh, I got one. We have wide open spaces, that are beautiful. The entire state of Utah's natural beauty (not the people, the land). There, I got one. Of course there are other parts of the world just as beautiful, and Canada has even more open spaces and beauty...so what else? Um...let's see, what else could I be proud of... free healthcare? Nope. The fact that we take care of our poor and children? Not really. How nice we are to our native Indians? Not at all. How wonderful we treat the rest of the world? No way, we do get involved but usually when it's too late (see: Sudan, Rwanda, WWII, want more?) Proud that we want to keep two people who love each other from being able to marry? No way. At least England offers "marriage visas" to "living partners", and Canada doesn't care as long as you pass their points system. Free universities? Where? We take care of our elderly? You answer that one.

Okay, so I have: scenery, and my pickup truck fits in down here, baseball, and country music. Yup that's it. I can't really find anything else to be proud of, that another country doesn't do better or just as good. Perhaps I should just be proud that I don't live in a third world country, I was able to declare bankruptcy, I "grew" during the year and a half absence my husband and I faced during our marriage thanks to the US, and if a refugee almost kills themselves to get here, we feed them before we send them merrily on their way back home. I'm just proud to be me, and proud to have found such a wonderful husband, and proud that my parents raised me to be as open towards the rest of the world as I could.

Happy De-colonization day.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home