I Am a Proud American

I am proud to be an American. I am.

I do not consider myself a patriot, or particularly "patriotic" because when I read the definition of the word "patriotic" ("the quality of being patriotic; devotion to and vigorous support for one's country."), I have some hesitations. 

• I have talked to people who call themselves patriots, and have told me to, "Go back to [my] country." They cannot possibly be supporters of the United States and at the same time wish to deny me my right to free speech. 
• I have seen, just within the past few days, people who must consider themselves "patriotic" because they are carrying the American flag (or wrapped themselves in it):  these people have hurt their fellow Americans, have killed them, and have desecrated the very spaces they claim to love so much. 
• I have seen self-described "patriots" who have committed heinous crimes against other Americans because those "others" do not fit the "patriotic" definition of American. As far as I can tell, a "patriot" MUST be white, heterosexual, non-liberal, and well, not "like that". 
•  When I was a child, I saw "patriots" attacking veterans of the Vietnam war for the sheer audacity of protesting the war they had just been fighting. I have read accounts of black veterans, still in their uniforms, being beaten and killed by "patriots" for asking to be treated as  human beings.
• When I was a child, I also read U. S. history books, full of accounts of atrocities against indigenous people, against humans held as slaves, against other US citizens in battle, all done because the perpetrators were "patriots".
  
• I have been called unpatriotic for not completely, without hesitation, supporting the 45th president of the United States. I've been called other names too for not supporting this man, but "unpatriotic" is the most galling.
• Finally, as a child I was compelled to "Pledge Allegiance to the Flag" without knowing what I was saying. As an adult, an elected leader, I was told it would be "patriotic" to force my children and all other children of the school district to "Pledge Allegiance to the Flag"...even if the children were not American citizens. 

So forgive me if I cannot call myself "patriotic".

But I do love the United States, with all its' flaws. I recognize that there are some serious, terrible problems within the borders of the US, and those problems have to be dealt with. But I have to believe that the majority of Americans want to make our country so much better, so much more just and free for all who live here. I do believe that.

Why am I proud to be an American?

 

• I received an education, a public education. I live in a country that values education for all. There are free public libraries too!
  
• I can vote. I can vote for people I believe have the same vision for my country. I can urge and register others to vote for the same candidates I do.
  
• I can speak out. I can write, I can send letters, I can make phone calls, I can peacefully protest. I recognize that the color of my skin means I can do all of that without being harmed, but I can also work for the rights of others to do the same thing.
• I can work to make things better for all, without being jailed or killed for being "against the government". 
• I can read whatever I want to. I can read newspapers, full of articles freely written by journalists, even if they are critical of the government.
• As an American, I live in a country with others who believe in the same basic tenets of government that I do; people who agree that the words in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence are basic building blocks for the government they want to work to uphold.
• I live in a country full of people who want to do the right thing, and who are allowed to encourage others to join them in that quest. They can start companies, not-for-profits, whatever they wish.
• I could go on and on, but I need to make a final, important point.

I am proud to be an American, and I love this country. I love the symbols of democracy, and I am proud we have them:  the Statue of Liberty, Lady Justice, the Lincoln Memorial, the Martin Luther King Memorial. The United States Capitol Building.

On September 11, 2001, I watched in horror as the "Twin Towers" fell, knowing so many people were going to die. I was concerned too about the people at the Pentagon as I watched that plane crash. But the hearing the Capitol building was the next possible target?? I was angry and horrified--how dare those terrorists attack our symbol of freedom? How dare they try to kill our lawmakers??? Evidently a plane full of human beings felt the same, as they all died in a field in Pennsylvania, trying to prevent the destruction of the Capitol. I will remember the horrors of that day forever; I will remember my feelings of utter shock forever.

I hoped I would never feel those feelings again in my lifetime. But on January 6, 2021, they all came rushing back as I watched a radical mob breach the Capitol and rush inside to break and destroy, and to kill other Americans. I was so sick, so angry--I knew absolutely that the President of the United States had told these rioters they were patriots. I knew he had instigated this simply because he could not deal with having lost an election; having lost the enormous power that comes with that important office. He stoked their feelings of hatred toward other Americans, he told them lies--he told them they had lost their rights as Americans. He knew exactly what he was doing, and they responded. They attacked a building, a monument to democracy that had not been breached since 1812, when it was breached by a then-foreign enemy. 

This Capitol of the United States? Even during the awful Civil War, all Americans knew this monument, this building should be protected. But some of  my fellow Americans became domestic terrorists this week; deluded into believing they were doing a patriotic thing by breaching and damaging a great symbol of democracy. 

 

They should be ashamed. 

He should be removed from office. He is not fit to be Commander in Chief.

 

And now? We all have work to do to re-unite our country. To take it back from tyranny.

Maybe...maybe some day, we can all be proud to be Americans again.