Why do I have to love America?

[Krueg235]

The radical republicans talk about the "hate America" crowd on the left. But, why should I like America? OK, so we aren't talking about being free from monarchy, dictatorship, or colonial rule anymore. We love America because we are free. Yeah, right. You can proclaim such slogans, but the reality is they're old and outworn. I want to love an America that gives its citizens health care whether they can afford it or not. An America that cares more about its people than the ethic that everything is judged by profit. An America that doesn't go to war because it thinks it might be romantic to fight a war, but because its what is asked. An America that thinks the people working the bottom are actually human beings who want to live and have a decent life rather than just being grateful that they have a job that can barely pay the bills.

I agree American affluence for a lot of people is a wonderful achievement, but greed and selfishness have overwhelmed the goodness of people.

[redstate_democrat]

1. Good post

[Breeze54]

2. Why does almost everyone in the world want to come here still?

I'm guessing it's because despite all our mistakes and unequals,

it's a helluva lot better than where they're coming from...

Many GI's would agree with that, I think.

[Krueg235]

5. Just because its better than a third world country doesn't mean I should

be satisfied (although grateful).

[Breeze54]

11. Who said you have to be satisfied?

Being happy and successful in the USA does NOT come with a guarantee.

It IS what YOU make it!!

guarantee: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/guarantee

... an assurance for the fulfillment of a condition: as

a: an agreement by which one person undertakes to secure another in the possession or enjoyment of something

b: an assurance of the quality of or of the length of use to be expected from a product offered
for sale often with a promise of reimbursement

4: guaranty 4

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Being satisfied in the USA was never a guarantee. It is what you make it.

[U4ikLefty]

14. What does "It IS what YOU make it" supposed to mean?

Sounds a lot like the "bootstraps" comments I hear from some other folks.

[Breeze54]

19. I t means it is what you make it....

Many impoverished people have come here and created great companies.

I'm not the "bootstrapper" person you refer too and even if it may sound
that way but I do believe if one can find their way here, they can succeed,
if they keep trying and persevere.

I have a lot of hope, I guess.

[Krueg235]

15. When did I say I had to be satisfied?

I didn't is the answer. Who says I have to love America? The people who take pride in their country and wont support your cause unless you are or appear patriotic. You're view that because were better than some other countries in the world we should be grateful for what we have is right and wrong. Its right because I am grateful that I live here instead of some of the other countries in the world. But, please, there are lots of countries in the world that are more progressive than our country. And, just because we are free doesn't mean we can go farther towards ensuring that every person have the chance for a better life.

[Breeze54]

18. "Just because its better than a third world country doesn't mean I should be satisfied"

Does that ring a bell? :shrug:

[Ron Green]

7. I'm not sure they understand WHY they want to come here, though.

Life is tough is lots of places, including the US. Life is tough enough in some $3 million mansions that people still kill themselves in them. I suspect cheap and shiny American pop culture and the promise of lots of consumer goods attracts many of those who want to come here, but I'm not sure "almost everyone in the world" is the group we're talking about.

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. We have a WINNER...

and for an example of this, to this day DALLAS, yes that corny program, is popular abroad

[Breeze54]

23. You're citing a TV program as 'proof'? WTF?

I suspect economics and water are HUGE reasons, besides
war and lack of freedom to 'BE' are the main reasons.

[Breeze54]

21. Maybe because we have indoor plumbing and drinking water?

That would motivate me.

[Breeze54]

22. BTW? I didn't ask 'why' they come here... you misread my reply title. n/t

[2rth2pwr]

3. Who says you have to do anything?

[The Straight Story]

4. America represents an ideal

That you can be free to post places like DU, that you can be free to do a lot of things.

You don't have that in some places. You don't have the ability in some places to start a new life with little and make a fortune.

America is not a place. It is an idea.

[Cant trust em]

6. You can do those things in many other places than just America

Europe, Japan, South Korea, Canada to name a few. Freedom of expression is hardly indigenous to the United States. While I do agree with you that we have many freedoms here, this isn't the only place to get them. I think that many Americans have been eating at the propaganda trough for too long.

[Krueg235]

9. What??????????

You're speaking in grand cliches. I don't really know what you're trying to say.

[The Straight Story]

10. Let me slow it down for you

The idea of America is that YOU are free - free to choose a religion, a job, etc and so on.

You are not beholden to the state, it is to you.

It is the idea that you and I are free to make choices and live with those choices. That the govt is there not for us to serve it, but for it to serve us (in a number of ways, including health care, defense, et al).

When we exist to serve the government and not ourselves we become slaves.

[Krueg235]

13. When you call American an idea you're being so very general.

There also are lots of thing that can be an idea without being put into the laws that grant us such freedoms.

And, with your explanation of "idea" as America, I don't really see why you are being critical of what I have written when you write that it is the governments job to serve the people.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

8. Love America for the potential of what it can become again.......

....not for what others are too willing to settle for.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

12. Loving something as nebulous as "my country" is absurd.

And, makes about as much sense as "loving" your car.

"Freedom is the absolute right of all adult men and women to seek permission for their actions only from their own conscience and reason, and to be determined in their actions only by their own will, and consequently to be responsible only to themselves, and then to the society to which the belong, but only insofar as they have made a free decision to belong to it." Mikhail Bakunin

"Patriotism is the most foolish of passions and the passion of fools." Schopenhauer

[chknltl]

16. You do not have to love her.

Lately AND historically there is much to be ashamed of her. Is there a better form of government than democracy? I think not. Like Spock said, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one."...that is what American democracy means to me. It should be the will of the enlightened majority. In this, there is hope, hope that somehow American democracy will somehow prevail within America.

We are a society not only based on democracy but one also based on capitalism. The two are truly antagonistic for capitalism is NOT democracy and given the chance will destroy democracy and yet without capitalism our democracy will wither and die. The dance through time between these two has brought us to where we are today. It has brought us much to be ashamed for. From Small Pox infected blankets given to native Americans to the depleted uranium WMD we used throughout the Middle East recently, there is indeed much to hate about her! So no, you do NOT have to love her.

But then we return to: Is there a better form of governance??? Look to the children, would you see them grow up under a tyrant? Would you see them slaving away in a corporate plant for food? Would you see their childhood removed from them and replaced by fear? I think not. You do not HAVE to love America to know that American democracy is worth fighting for.... that it is up to us to preserve America's democracy so that the children can have a chance perhaps, to polish her up! It is up to us to realize what a jewel yet in the rough we barely hang on to and why it is we hang on to her.

It is all about you and me and every single voting adult in America taking it upon themselves to understand what our responsibility is to American democracy. There truly is no better form of governance and if we choose to allow this to slip through our hands because we have been too lazy to educate ourselves then maybe we don't deserve her...and that does WHAT for the children??? The children can not know what we know...they don't have to love America either but THEIR future does indeed rest on a knifes-edge. What we do here today will determine the future for our children's children.

Consider my words when next you meet a child, then ask yourself, "Why do I have to love America?"

Thank you for your post Krueg235, it made me think. Welcome to the Democratic Underground.

[Breeze54]

20. I have chills .... and tears....

I wish I could recommend this!

You'd be a great contender for 'Nancy Greggs'! ;)

www.nancyrants.com

:kick: & recommended ;)

[chknltl]

24. Thank you

Quite the compliment... :blush: (NanceGreggs is one of my DU heroes.) Thank you again.

[JCMach1]

25. There are many reasons to love America

living outside the country long-term will give you some perspective on this (especially anywhere in Asia).

I have adopted the Arab position hate the government as applicable, love the country.

-You are as free (or more free than almost any place on the planet).
-The people can (and do) have power when they choose to assert it.
-Corporations and the wealthy have more control outside the US.
-Rationality vs. bureaucracy... try living any place that is in Europe, or has colonial hangover... You have to file a form in triplicate to cut your nails. And for the love of the diety, don't forget the stamp!

You are part of the privileged elite and wealthier than the vast majority of people on this planet... you just don't know it. If you don't believe it, come I will show you India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Armenia, Kenya, virtually anywhere outside of Europe or North America.

It makes me proud to be American every time an Arab student's jaw drops because I talk a particular way about the Resident in the WH. I have that freedom and I am damn proud of it.

Oh God help me, I miss the food! :patriot:

The good news is business trip home next week!!!

[eridani]

26. Don't do the repukes' job for them by using their frames

Shift the frame. Demand to know who or what they think "America" is. As in "Whatchu mean WE, Kemosabe?" Is "America" the elite ruling class and their corporations headquartered in Bermuda or Dubai (conveniently close to all those terrorist banking operations)? Or could it be that the rest of us poor saps who just live here might have some claim to the designation? I despise the elite "America" and love the "America" of Joe Hill and Sojourner Truth and Susan B Anthony and Ida Tarbell and Martin Luther King, Jr. And "we" are bloody well not defending "our" interests with 700+ military bases around the world.

[canis_lupus]

27. 'Cuz if you don't love 'Murica you must love the terrorists

That must be true 'cuz I heard the president say it.
:eyes:

[chknltl]

28. kicked

[BlooInBloo]

29. Sure, if you ignore all the good things, then only bad things remain. DU genius again.