Well, Charlie, I'll back you up on that. May hell rain down upon me from all who disagree... that's okay. It's important to have these kinds of discussions.
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Originally Posted by rockogre
An American lives in the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God given right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.
An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return.
When Afghanistan was over-run by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country!
The national symbol of America , The Statue of Liberty , welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America
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Well, rockogre, I mean you no offense whatsoever, but I have to respond to some of these words. I am pretty anti-nationalistic (of any country), especially when statements like these are unqualified and seem to have been written simply for rhetoric's sake. Granted, let it be said that I am grateful to have the freedom to be critical of these kinds of things, and I am grateful to people who defend that freedom.
However, freedom does not give anyone the power to ignore or rewrite history, especially for the sake of patriotism.
Prosperous? It's not because of the Declaration of Independence... I can't really begin to start on that one. Read your history book. And if you asked the residents of New Orleans, or of any other disadvantaged group in America, I am pretty sure they would not say this is a "prosperous" land... at least, not equally prosperous. And what is the point of prosperity if it is not equally distributed? (That's my bias, though.)
Generous... maybe when it benefits us (yes, we do ask for things in return), but we aren't nearly as generous (neither with our aid nor our trade policies) as we could be, given our amount of "prosperity." Please point out more than a few examples of unconditional generosity (both domestically and internationally, including taking care of the environment) and maybe I'll believe that one.
What's with the focus on Afghanistan? It's interesting to cite one "good" example of intervention, but what about all the secret wars that we never heard about? What about installing dictators in countries (particularly Latin America) who were far worse than any democratically-elected leader would have been? Anyone know how all the Hmong "immigrants" got here? Yeah, there's all kinds of shit when you start to dig.
As for welcoming the tired and poor... yeah, we're not such a fan of the tired and poor if they're Mexican, apparently. 100 years ago, it was the Irish, Italians, and Chinese we hated. And African-Americans have never had an easy time of it, period. We have never unconditionally welcomed all groups into our nation; there is always an exception.
Why does he have to say that "everyone is an American?" I'd go so far as to say everyone is a human being... but no, Americans are not always the embodiment of freedom, and we (nor anyone else in the West) do not have a premium on being "civilized." Humans are humans, that's about it. And every human is capable of great actions and despicable actions. Not one nationality or group can claim to be better than others.
/2 cents. Again, this is not a personal response to rockogre himself, simply to the words purportedly written by this Australian/Mr. Ferrara.