Thursday, July 05, 2012
Political Mayhem Thursday: On America
Earlier in my life, I went through a period where I spent a lot of time outside of this country. I loved exploring, and was especially fascinated by places with some evil lurking there-- I was drawn to spend time in South Africa during apartheid, England under Thatcher and during the violence of the IRA, and the Soviet Union in its waning days. I was never a supporter of any of the things those regimes stood for (at least at the time I visited-- Thatcher makes more sense to me now), but went to see what the truth was about those nations. It would be, I suppose, like going to North Korea now.
What I came away with was a deep and abiding appreciation for this country. It is a privilege to live here.
July 4 was a good chance to reflect on these things. What is it that you think is good about this country? To start things off, I am quoting below a comment that Marta put up here yesterday (which I found particularly moving):
To the only place on Earth that still inspires dreams and incites desires to make them real! The other day on the subway I saw a woman completely enveloped in a black burqa, just a sliver of shining eyes and deft hands handling a restless baby. Need I say more?
I was born some place else, but the person I grew up to be was meant to become an American. And I did and I am and I'm proud. And to prove it, I knew I became an American when I got into a vehement argument with a snooty European defending none other than American junk food (I didn't win but I scored a few good punches)...even though I think junk food is the most evil American invention, in fact I have no idea why America ever bothered with wars and weapons of mass destruction, when unleashing the fried Twinkies would have done the job just fine.
Happy Independence Day!
What I came away with was a deep and abiding appreciation for this country. It is a privilege to live here.
July 4 was a good chance to reflect on these things. What is it that you think is good about this country? To start things off, I am quoting below a comment that Marta put up here yesterday (which I found particularly moving):
To the only place on Earth that still inspires dreams and incites desires to make them real! The other day on the subway I saw a woman completely enveloped in a black burqa, just a sliver of shining eyes and deft hands handling a restless baby. Need I say more?
I was born some place else, but the person I grew up to be was meant to become an American. And I did and I am and I'm proud. And to prove it, I knew I became an American when I got into a vehement argument with a snooty European defending none other than American junk food (I didn't win but I scored a few good punches)...even though I think junk food is the most evil American invention, in fact I have no idea why America ever bothered with wars and weapons of mass destruction, when unleashing the fried Twinkies would have done the job just fine.
Happy Independence Day!
Comments:
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What do I love about being an American?
EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING.
It is NOT perfect but I even like that. I love that after 200 years it is still a work in progress. I love that everyone in the universe puts down this country but where is the FIRST PLACE they move to if they had the chance? I love the idea that though it makes most of us SICK to see our flag burned most of us would defend a fellow American's right to burn it. I get SO ANNYOED with all the hatred that is spewed out in political campaigns and on AM Talk Radio and places like Fox news etc... most times I tune it out but I love that no one gets beheaded or ends up in jail for life for expressing their opinions.
There are a lot of things wrong with the United Stated of America but a lot of things right with it. I would never want to live anywhere else. Only America could produce some of the best and worst things ever = serial killers, Woody Allen, iphones, Lady Gaga, The Office, Mad Men, Glenn Beck, Bill Murray, Cher, Sarah Palin... NANCY vs TONYA, I don't know SO MANY great things.. SO much Crap. ALL AT THE SAME TIME.
It's NOT perfect. But it's not terrible, either.
EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING.
It is NOT perfect but I even like that. I love that after 200 years it is still a work in progress. I love that everyone in the universe puts down this country but where is the FIRST PLACE they move to if they had the chance? I love the idea that though it makes most of us SICK to see our flag burned most of us would defend a fellow American's right to burn it. I get SO ANNYOED with all the hatred that is spewed out in political campaigns and on AM Talk Radio and places like Fox news etc... most times I tune it out but I love that no one gets beheaded or ends up in jail for life for expressing their opinions.
There are a lot of things wrong with the United Stated of America but a lot of things right with it. I would never want to live anywhere else. Only America could produce some of the best and worst things ever = serial killers, Woody Allen, iphones, Lady Gaga, The Office, Mad Men, Glenn Beck, Bill Murray, Cher, Sarah Palin... NANCY vs TONYA, I don't know SO MANY great things.. SO much Crap. ALL AT THE SAME TIME.
It's NOT perfect. But it's not terrible, either.
Van Halen
Baseball
Football
Guns 'n' Roses
Apple Pie
All other pies
All pies with ice cream on them
Cargo shorts
Bandanas
Shirts with wolves on them
Judge Judy
Van Halen
Michael Irvin
Fireworks
Raising Arizona
People who disagree with you
Guns
Van Hagar
David Lee Roth
Howard Stern
Robert Griffin, III
Quincy Acy
Pickup trucks
When you're driving on some infinite stretch of highway with nobody in sight and Boston's "More than a Feeling" comes on, and you roll all the windows down and rock out for the entire song. That is freaking America right there.
Baseball
Football
Guns 'n' Roses
Apple Pie
All other pies
All pies with ice cream on them
Cargo shorts
Bandanas
Shirts with wolves on them
Judge Judy
Van Halen
Michael Irvin
Fireworks
Raising Arizona
People who disagree with you
Guns
Van Hagar
David Lee Roth
Howard Stern
Robert Griffin, III
Quincy Acy
Pickup trucks
When you're driving on some infinite stretch of highway with nobody in sight and Boston's "More than a Feeling" comes on, and you roll all the windows down and rock out for the entire song. That is freaking America right there.
# posted by 
: 12:34 PM
: 12:34 PM
I like it a lot more than that...a lot.... but if you start saying how much you love it..you start to sound like you are on a bus tour.....
Inspired list,RRL! Pie is key. Butterscotch and Rhubarb Custard get me where I live. I liked the last two lines,because of the poetry there and the fact that I could picture you in that car,and hear that song. I love to drive and rock out myself.
I never know how to feel on The Fourth of July. I love America and living here,but feel loyalty and kinship to people of so many other nations: The English,The Irish,The British,The Italians and The Greeks,The Ethiopians. I would like to feel that I am a citizen of the world. I hate how we have been a manhandler in the world. How we can't seem to keep our fingers out of the pie. On the other hand I love Abraham Lincoln,Thomas Jefferson,Benjamin Franklin,Theodore Roosevelt,FDR,the fact that there is a Rachel Maddow and deposed Keith Olberman. I loved William F.Buckley(even wrote a swell poem or "strut" for him) , our chattiness with strangers,almost little kid desire to be accepted by foreigners. So,I go to the parades,and when it isn't stiflingly hot,to the fireworks and my heart swells and sometimes I cry. And last night I went out into the compound of Pharisees with my pooch and looked at an orange moon and sang to it and then the sky exploded with color.
I love the fact that the ideals stated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution with its Bill of Rights always offer us a chance for redemption in the future when we fail to live up to those ideals in the present (even when such a failure was enshrined in the Constitution itself by counting each slave as three-fifths of a person).
The German Protestant theologian Jürgen Moltmann, in his book The Coming of God, calls America "a country -- and the first country -- for all humanity." In his autobiography, A Broad Place, Moltmann also wrote this:
'God bless America' is often heard on the lips of American presidents. But whether God blesses America will become apparent when it emerges whether America is a blessing for the peoples of the world, or their burden and curse; for one is blessed only in order to be a blessing oneself.
The German Protestant theologian Jürgen Moltmann, in his book The Coming of God, calls America "a country -- and the first country -- for all humanity." In his autobiography, A Broad Place, Moltmann also wrote this:
'God bless America' is often heard on the lips of American presidents. But whether God blesses America will become apparent when it emerges whether America is a blessing for the peoples of the world, or their burden and curse; for one is blessed only in order to be a blessing oneself.
# posted by : 6:41 PM
: 6:41 PM
Thank you for introducing us to Jurgen Moltmann,Chief. I love the quotation. It sums up what I feel accurately....I've never been able to express it before. Really missed you in your Panama hat and Carrie and the kids on The Fourth.
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