I had to leave the country to be proud of it in my adult life.

[rinsd]

Call it perspective.

I was teenager when I went to Clinton's 1st inauguration and wrote off my feeling of pride as youthful indiscretion ;-)

My mother, siblings and I set off for Ireland to visit our "homeland". The year was 2000.

We spent time in Galway, Carrick on Shannon, Cork, SE Ireland and Dublin.

But it was in Dublin where I received my swelling of pride.

Every Irishman & woman we talked with loved Bill Clinton. I shit you not. They could not stop speaking about him as soon as they found out we were Americans.

But it was visiting the Dail (Irish Parliament) that really shook me.

We had a distant cousin who was actually a member and he gave us a private tour of the building that included a room with pictures of visiting American Presidents giving speeches.

Kennedy of course was featured prominently followed closely by Clinton.

These were huge pictures, easily 10 to 15 feet wide.

Hearing my cousin wax on about Bill Clinton and what he had done as we looked over these photos of huge adoring crowds and what are my Democratic heroes, well I was so proud of my country I almost teared up.

Then I saw a much smaller photo perhaps 2 to 3 feet in width with a simple caption

"Ronald Reagan visited Ireland - and the date"

And then I was very proud to be an Irish descendant.