Patriotics

So here, I am, sitting in the back of class… blue jeans, pearl snap shirt, sipping on sweet tea… once more in “American History.” Okay, okay, you found me out… I’m a patriot. I can’t really hide it, I kinda like America. So sue me. I happen to believe that I live in the best country to ever exist on God’s green Earth. Do I claim that the United States of America is perfect? Absolutely not! Certainly we’ve made mistakes, we’ve had problems, we’ve had BIG problems, but all in all, over the years I think we’ve established that, given time, the concepts of freedom and democracy tend to turn out to be pretty darn good things. Moreover, I also believe that nationalism is a GOOD THING. It’s important to have pride about where you’re from, where you live… if you weren’t proud of it, you’d let people mess it up. Shouldn’t our nation’s academic institutions be teaching us to have a little pride in our chunk of land? Shouldn’t we assume that we as a people have some degree of inherent value? If we’re not proud of this place… why in the world would anyone continue to fight for her? The simple fact of the matter is that because of all these things that make America so great, I find myself sitting in a class constantly being told how many horrible things this country has done. But you know, you’ve got that right… so, preach on fearless teacher... tell us all of the horrendous actions of the good ole US of A, I’ll continue to get less than stellar grades for writing “triumphantly nationalistic” essays… and I’ll continue to listen as you explain how horrible you think it is that in the South people are still expected to refer to their elders as “Sir” or “Ma’am”… and I’ll continue to call you “ma’am” so here I am, sitting in the back of the class… blue jeans, pearl snap shirt… sipping on sweet tea.