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So you're grateful and thankful to live in America but not proud of it? Sounds a little hypocritical to me.
That's like saying you're thankful for friends to make a cross country visit to come see you and get to your place safe, but you don't really want to hang out with them. You're not proud to be associated with them. And something's not right about that.
You completely missed the point of everything he's posted. That's not what he was saying at all, as he just said...
You maybe are freer than european people, if you want to open a buisiness and you´ve more living space, your houses are bigger, you don´t depend on public transport and even most towns aren´t crowded like in any other place ...
But you´re not freer for real, because you can´t do anything against capitalist interests. You can´t fight for your rights of you don´t have a well payed attorney, so you must build a lobby for your interests. But their lobbies are stronger and you must struggle for every single case.
I mean things like mountain top removal and other environmental damages and the living conditions of many people - The Intoxination of the everglades, the uranium mines on indian reservations, the oil production in national parks, the growth hormons in the agribuisiness, the genetic engeneering, the health risk in poisoned trailers -
social issues - very high prison rates, the big crime problem, the high amount of people living in substandard houses or homeless the foreign policy - all these wars for the capitalist elite
You nearly can´t do anything against that injustice. The times of Martin Luther Kind are gone ...
In Germany the individual passion for freedom is weaker and freedom of speech is much less in people´s conscience.
but here we have less disposal and more governmental care for the enviroment, the basic needs of every human beeing (though social guarantees are in decline) and the equality before the law (though it´s not perfect and tehre´s also discrimination of minorities in some respects)
Also in economical depressed rural regions (many areas in eastern germany) or between urban ghettos and wealthy suburbs you won´t find extremes like in the U.S.
I personally add safety and relative equality of living standards to freedom
I think its silly to be proud of something you have no control over and put no effort into.
Studying hard and getting good grades is something to be proud of. Working your ass off and getting a promotion is something to be proud of. Randomly being born in a country is nothing to be proud of. You didn't do anything.
Same goes for this stupid ethnic pride. Black pride, white pride, Italian pride, Irish pride, etc. You didn't do anything except for be born. George Carlin had a good bit on this.
You didn't earn your parents & relatives. Are you proud to be from your family? You didn't do anything to be born in the city you are born in. Do you take any pride in being from your hometown? People don't have any bit of contribution to the sports teams they root for as children. Should nobody take pride in the success of the teams they root for?
I get what you're saying here, but one should not be faulted for having a sense of pride in something they didn't necessarily earn or create. Now limiting that pride to avoid acting like a jerk is something that we should all do.
You didn't earn your parents & relatives. Are you proud to be from your family? You didn't do anything to be born in the city you are born in. Do you take any pride in being from your hometown? People don't have any bit of contribution to the sports teams they root for as children. Should nobody take pride in the success of the teams they root for?
I get what you're saying here, but one should not be faulted for having a sense of pride in something they didn't necessarily earn or create. Now limiting that pride to avoid acting like a jerk is something that we should all do.
Family, I have some pride in. Families create the persons that we are. I can somewhat control who my family is or isn't. The city that I'm from or sports teams I have no pride in. I root for them though.
I really don't think they are, though. I think being proud to be an American simply means you're proud of America and what it's done, simple as that.
The way I see it, being proud to be an American means that you're proud to be from a country that has done such great things, not that you're proud to have been born here or proud that you got the chance to live here and other people didn't.
I'm proud to be an American, but not so proud that I can't acknowledge things that America does wrong. I am not proud of many, many of the actions America has taken under the Bush regime. So in that sense I am not proud of America, yet I am proud to be an American. I take pride in all the many accomplishments and all the good that exists in America's history. And I am proud to be able to say that I am from here and can align myself with the good that America has done in the past. You absolutely can differentiate between the two.
You maybe are freer than european people, if you want to open a buisiness and you´ve more living space, your houses are bigger, you don´t depend on public transport and even most towns aren´t crowded like in any other place ...
But you´re not freer for real, because you can´t do anything against capitalist interests. You can´t fight for your rights of you don´t have a well payed attorney, so you must build a lobby for your interests. But their lobbies are stronger and you must struggle for every single case.
I mean things like mountain top removal and other environmental damages and the living conditions of many people - The Intoxination of the everglades, the uranium mines on indian reservations, the oil production in national parks, the growth hormons in the agribuisiness, the genetic engeneering, the health risk in poisoned trailers -
social issues - very high prison rates, the big crime problem, the high amount of people living in substandard houses or homeless the foreign policy - all these wars for the capitalist elite
You nearly can´t do anything against that injustice. The times of Martin Luther Kind are gone ...
In Germany the individual passion for freedom is weaker and freedom of speech is much less in people´s conscience.
but here we have less disposal and more governmental care for the enviroment, the basic needs of every human beeing (though social guarantees are in decline) and the equality before the law (though it´s not perfect and tehre´s also discrimination of minorities in some respects)
Also in economical depressed rural regions (many areas in eastern germany) or between urban ghettos and wealthy suburbs you won´t find extremes like in the U.S.
I personally add safety and relative equality of living standards to freedom
the topic starter say it's a gift from god to be american. thats just dilusional, why would just the americans get a gift from god? doesn't god love every christian no matter what country you are from?
taken from my earlier post.
you say "god bless america", don't you think god would bless the whole world and not just america?
to say that it's a gift from god to be american, is defenitley to claim superiority.
It's not a gift you just happened to be born in that place. and thats it.
Wow, I did not realize how major of an inferiority complex you had. No wonder you're always trolling. When you posed your earlier questions about whether or not Americans felt superior to Europeans, I voted no. Now I have to amend that by saying that I definitely, without a doubt feel superior to you or any other individual with such a major complex and the inability to acknowledge my own faults. Thank you for making me feel better about myself!
I didn't become an American by my own merit, nor am I proud of the actions of others. So, no. I'll get jumped on for this, but I truthfully am not nor do I even remotely comprehend the concept.
I feel the same way. I never understood how someone can be proud of what they were born into. (proud to be American, proud to be black, ect...) If I practice real hard at somethng and I win a compitition, I would have a reason to be proud, or if I went to school and found a good job, and I did, I can be proud of that.
In addition, and I know I'm gonna get slammed here, there are many things to be shameful of America for. Slavery, the massacre of the Native Americans, going to war over oil, the rich controlling most things, the corrupt politics. I just can't be so blinded as to think that I live in the greatest country in the world when I've never lived in any other.
Now that I made that rant, I can say that there are many wonderful things in America and I do love it here, although I am sure I would love any country I was in.
I was born in 1947 to a Dad that had served the duration of WW2 and a Mother in W.va that waited for him to return.
Since Dad was with Pattons 3rd Army at the Seigfried line and the Battle of the Bulge and all the other hot points that Patton led them through, Mom was lucky to get Dad back.
I was in the Army as a UH-1 (Huey) helicopter crew chief during the Vietnam conflict.
Two of my sons are in the military now. One spent a year in Afganistan.
They both might spend another tour over there with the build up.
Am I proud to be an American? Yes, Yes, and Yes.
I am proud that my Dad, myself, and two of my sons have all served our country. I am even very proud of the women who stood by faithfully and waited for us. Knowing they were waiting helped keep some of us alive.
I certainly don't agree with all the decisions our so called leaders make. And I think most politicions are crooks that care for their own bank accounts and the hell with the normal people.
Bush was terrible.
I'll give Obama a long term chance. At least 4 years to try to straighten out Bushes 8 years of screw ups.
But for myself, I am PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN, and always will be, no matter how bad it gets.
Because I got to live most of my life in a real America when people still had individual rights, freedom, and big brother was just a future nuisance and not a daily reality.
I know my kids and grandkids won't be able to feel like I do when they are 62 years old.
And that is a shame. I'm glad I won't be around to see it.
During my life even guilty people were presumed innocent until proven guilty.
In todays America, EVERYONE IS PRESUMED GUILTY UNTILL PROVEN INNOCENT.
That is why people get pulled over for sobriety checks that have absolutely done nothing wrong. That is why you can't go into the airport concourse and meet your 56 year old sister coming in from Salt Lake that has never done anything to anyone in her life except keep people alive because she is a trauma nurse.
Yes I am still proud to be an American. But mostly only because I remember what America used to be when it really was America.
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You completely missed the point of everything he's posted. That's not what he was saying at all, as he just said...
