Proud to be an American?

My opinion on the current state of things.

In this day and age I cannot say with any sincerity that I am proud to be an American. Do not mistake as I am not thankful to live here, because I am. I am just disenfranchised with what the term American has devolved into. I do not want to be lumped into that category. I know I am not alone in feeling this. It is a difficult thing to admit for most, but the time for pleasantries has long since passed.

I am apparently unpatriotic due to my empathy towards all humans, and not just the ones that look and talk like me. I believe that humanity is beautiful because of all of its differences. I enjoy the company of my friends and colleagues and family of all different religions, races, and nationalities. This does not make me any less American, if anything it makes me a true American. From the second our ancestors set foot on this continent, we have been raging a war of hate with anyone with a different pigmentation. It started with the Native Americans, who still to this day do not receive the apologies and the acceptance that is more than two centuries overdue. Next is was the African Americans, then the Germans, the Irish, and the Jews. We find a new group of people to hate in every generation, which is a drastic contrast to what America is supposed to be. America was envisioned as a place where all people of all walks of life could come together and enjoy life free of persecution. What was meant to be a land of freedom has turned into a cesspool of stipulations and barriers. If you do not meet a certain set of standards that are not mentioned anywhere in our nations documents then you are not American. If you are not white, Christian, republican, heterosexual, in love with guns, or well to do financially then you are automatically labeled as part of the problem with this country. They couldn’t be more wrong.

Over the past fourteen years, I have watched as societal decency has deteriorated around us. I have watched as fear mongering and hatred flowed through the veins of this nation. I have watched as racial discrimination came back with a vengeance, I have watched religious persecution raise its ugly hypocritical head, and I have watched as the American dream became a nightmare. This country is torn to shreds. We have shootings every day, and yet these “model Americans” want to answer it with more guns in more hands. You have presidential candidates promising Deportation Squads, a term that is way too close to Nazism for comfort. We are in the middle of the largest Humanitarian crisis since the holocaust, and instead of doing the right thing, people are fighting over whether or not we should allow orphaned children into the country for fear of what they may do. We have a large portion of the Christian community that feels like they are being oppressed because their religious beliefs have no bearing on government decisions (even though our government was created to prevent just that). These same Christians who cling so passionately to their religion on topics like abortion, LGBT rights, and Bill Nye, are the ones who completely disregard the teachings of their god when it comes to helping anyone with different beliefs in a time of need. American equality has a cancerous mass slowly choking the life out of it, and this seething tumor is made up of our own version of extremists.

Our nation’s cancer is stage four, but she keeps on smoking three packs of fear and hate a day. Tune into and conservative new station, and you will be bombarded with hate filled rant after hate filled rant, and just when you think that it can’t get any worse you will hear about all the people you should be afraid of because their sole purpose in life is to kill you, to take away your rights as gun and bible toting citizens with their liberalism, homosexuality, and downright heathenism. This line of thinking is what is killing America. Not the liberals. Not the evil terrorists. Not the #blacklivesmatter campaign. Not Syrian widows and orphans. No it is the bigoted ideology, the mass hysteria, the irrational rationalizations that you conjure up from the depths of your compassion-less being, and the hypocritical nature in which you act that is ensuring total organ failure.

So no, I am not proud to be an American today. Hopefully with enough people will be able to see through the haze of fear and lies so that we can send this cancer into remission. United we stand, divided we fall, and right now we have 50 separate countries calling themselves the United States of America, and if we don’t change soon, fall we shall.

Reviews

[Samuel Dickens]

Whether this might be a spiel, a rant or whatever, it's very well done, and sounds to me a lot like my own thoughts. I'm a loyal American, even when my country's white hat is looking rather soiled. There are probably a lot of reasons why things have gotten like this, but I put most of the blame on the Media, and especially Fox "News", Limbaugh, Drudge, etc.

[Matt Artis]

Thank you!