What of America is there to be proud of?

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I had a teacher in third grade that was REALLY tough on me. Criticized me all the time, I felt like nothing I ever did was good enough. One day, my 9 year old self just lost it and burst into tears over a composition grade. Sister took me outside, dried my tears, looked me straight in the eye and said: “Do you know why I’m so hard on you?” I shook my head. She said: “Because you have the potential to do so much better and I love you enough to want to see you do everything you’re capable of.” I never forgot that day, or her. She’s gone to God now, but she was a major force in my life.

I love my country enough to see her potential and critique her when she isn’t living up to it.

Think about that next time you’re ready to accuse someone of “hating America”.
 
Fitswimmer said:
Think about that next time you’re ready to accuse someone of “hating America”.
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What you say is very true and I don’t think a single patriotic American here would deny that there’s always room for improvement.

There are “Americans,” however, that go beyond the mere “critiquing” that you describe. There are those who attack the very core of this nation’s existence and the principles upon which it was founded - professing to be “rebels” in the line of the founding revolutionaries. I can think of nothing more repuslive and insulting to those who sacrificed so much to bring this great nation into being and to those who continue to sacrifice for it today.
 
Fitswimmer said:
I had a teacher in third grade that was REALLY tough on me. Criticized me all the time, I felt like nothing I ever did was good enough. One day, my 9 year old self just lost it and burst into tears over a composition grade. Sister took me outside, dried my tears, looked me straight in the eye and said: “Do you know why I’m so hard on you?” I shook my head. She said: “Because you have the potential to do so much better and I love you enough to want to see you do everything you’re capable of.” I never forgot that day, or her. She’s gone to God now, but she was a major force in my life.

I love my country enough to see her potential and critique her when she isn’t living up to it.

Think about that next time you’re ready to accuse someone of “hating America”.
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Perfect analogy. Your signature quote of Lamott is right on the money also: “When God hates all the same people that you hate, you can be absolutely certain that you have created him in your own image”. Good post.
 
Fitswimmer said:
I had a teacher in third grade that was REALLY tough on me. Criticized me all the time, I felt like nothing I ever did was good enough. One day, my 9 year old self just lost it and burst into tears over a composition grade. Sister took me outside, dried my tears, looked me straight in the eye and said: “Do you know why I’m so hard on you?” I shook my head. She said: “Because you have the potential to do so much better and I love you enough to want to see you do everything you’re capable of.” I never forgot that day, or her. She’s gone to God now, but she was a major force in my life.

I love my country enough to see her potential and critique her when she isn’t living up to it.

Think about that next time you’re ready to accuse someone of “hating America”.
Click to expand...
Well said! This is the difference between a patriot and a nationalist. A patriot loves their country when it’s right and when it’s wrong, loves it enough to right it. A nationalist loves their country, right or wrong.
 
Peregrino said:
Perfect analogy. Your signature quote of Lamott is right on the money also: “When God hates all the same people that you hate, you can be absolutely certain that you have created him in your own image”. Good post.
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I like your quote too. My ethics professor in college had that one in her office. She was a Sister of Charity and I LOVED her class.
 
The Constitution- by far the best document for humankind/governments outside the Gospels.

The People- innovative, generous and gregarious.

The US Military- a non-political force which is pledged to the defense of the Constitution, not the government/President who commands them.

The good intentions of most Americans for themselves and the rest of the world.
 
LCMS_No_More said:
Well said! This is the difference between a patriot and a nationalist. A patriot loves their country when it’s right and when it’s wrong, loves it enough to right it. A nationalist loves their country, right or wrong.
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i would like to add that having an unswerving loyalty to a particular government or its policies is not the same thing as being a patriot.
 
Often when somebody issues this sort of challenge there is absolutely no response which they will not find fault with. So I like the answer somebody else gave, that this is our home. …but I also like the counter-question of, what country would you be MORE proud of?
 
Why worry about America? If each of us worried only about ourselves and sincerely got involved in changing our countries for the better, our countries would change almost entirely within a year.
 
Fitswimmer said:
I love my country enough to see her potential and critique her when she isn’t living up to it.
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I agree, but then that’s not what this post is about. If we were to start one on things on which God will judge America, I can think of a few. But I believe it to be important to “count our blessings” as it were. That is this nature of this season. I do worry about those, who when asked the OP question, must instead blast and criticize, instead of finding anything positive.
 
Tracy10 said:
Why worry about America?
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The answer to your question is within your own post:
If each of us worried only about ourselves and sincerely got involved in changing our countries for the better, our countries would change almost entirely within a year.
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The American Revolution was ordered towards the progress of society in Virtue - without which no truly free democracy can stand. The Founding Fathers recognized an intimate connection between civic duty, personal virtue, and liberty and there are countless quotes from the Founding Fathers to this effect.

As Americans, if we are patriots, we are required to do the very thing you propose. 🙂
 
neat62 said:
Sorry, but there is no denying the fact that without America, WW2 would have been lost. Moreso than any other nation. Be it our aid, our resources, our military equipment, our blood. We sent piolts to Europe before we went to war with Germany. We fought two wars on two fronts sudccessfully. There is a reason why the US became a superpower, and it was not soley because we had the bomb. Russia was a superpower as well before they had the bomb. The US and Russia were equally responsible for the outcome of WW2. It is not arrogance, it is fact.
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I think even America realized we should have gotten involved long before we were bombed at Pearl Harbor.
After WWII, we pledged to not ever let this type of thing happen again.
… and only 5 years later, we were in Korea.
WWII is the reason we stand up for others around the world, without needing to be attacked first. Our interest is not *only *for ourselves.

michel
 
mike182d said:
The answer to your question is within your own post:

The American Revolution was ordered towards the progress of society in Virtue - without which no truly free democracy can stand. The Founding Fathers recognized an intimate connection between civic duty, personal virtue, and liberty and there are countless quotes from the Founding Fathers to this effect.

As Americans, if we are patriots, we are required to do the very thing you propose. 🙂
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Some, such as Charles Beard (An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution), would argue that the main concerns of the landholding, economic elite who gave form to our government/country did so in the manner they did because it benefited them economically. While I am not quite as cynical as Beard (or others), I think the truth probably lies closer to their perspective than to the idealism expressed in your post.
 
cazayoux said:
I think even America realized we should have gotten involved long before we were bombed at Pearl Harbor.
After WWII, we pledged to not ever let this type of thing happen again.
… and only 5 years later, we were in Korea.
WWII is the reason we stand up for others around the world, without needing to be attacked first. Our interest is not *only *for ourselves.

michel
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Oh I know. I agree with you.
 
There is a story of an elderly American visiting France. The customs officer asked for his passport.

“Since when do we need a passport to visit France?”

“M’sieu, Americans have always needed a passport to visit France.”

“I assure you that when I waded ashore on Omaha Beach, there was no Frenchman standing there checking our passports.”

We have saved France three times. We saved them from being defeated by the Germans in WWI. We liberated them from the Germans in WWII. And we saved them from being “liberated” by the Soviets in WWII.
 
cazayoux said:
… and only 5 years later, we were in Korea.
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After Korea we helped the UK overthrow Iran.
A few years after that Viet Nam.
Then Lebanon. Bosnia. Kuwait. Iraq.

Do you support only selective UN resolutions to fight for or are you willing to go to war for all of them? Are you willing to fight yourself or your children for the South Koreans and Taiwanese in North KKorea attaclks again or China retakes Taiwan?
WWII is the reason we stand up for others around the world, without needing to be attacked first. Our interest is not *only *for ourselves.
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michel
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I can’t seem to find in our Constitution or a Doctrine of our faith that we should hit first before being hit. Can you enlighten me? Making offensive war on others for their own good is hardly an admirable thing, imo.

If you want to claim America has made millions ‘free’ in Iraq and Afghanistan because of our actions there since '01- will you also claim the billions we give to Egypt, Pakistan, and Arabia has made us more safe and free?

What about the billions we gave Iran once we installed our puppet government (1953) before we were violently expelled in 1979? The billions we gave Iraq when they fought Iran in the 80’s. The billions we gave Afghanistan to fight the Soviets in the 90’s. The billions we give to Pakistan to serve us our justice for bin Laden?

There is much to be proud of about America. The last 60 years of foreign policy is not one of them.
 
Peregrino said:
Some, such as Charles Beard (An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution), would argue that the main concerns of the landholding, economic elite who gave form to our government/country did so in the manner they did because it benefited them economically. While I am not quite as cynical as Beard (or others), I think the truth probably lies closer to their perspective than to the idealism expressed in your post.
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Charles A. Beard’s thesis, that the Constition was designed to protect the wealthy at the expense of others, has been throughly refuted.

Beard “prooved” his thesis by showing that the authors of the Constitution were wealthy men. He was refuted by showing that the Constitution does not favor the wealthy over others – had he simply read and understood the Constitution, he would never have written the book.
 
Peregrino said:
Some, such as Charles Beard (An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution), would argue that the main concerns of the landholding, economic elite who gave form to our government/country did so in the manner they did because it benefited them economically. While I am not quite as cynical as Beard (or others), I think the truth probably lies closer to their perspective than to the idealism expressed in your post.
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Economics was a major factor in founding the US, no doubt. But the speeches, letter, quotes, books, written by our Founding Fathers clealry show that Beard was way off. Just because someone can put together coherent “thought” or “idea” in a book or in print, does not neccessarliy make them even close to being correct. Beard was a socialist. No doubt he felt the way he did.
  1. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
  2. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the “common man.”
uhuh.com/nwo/communism/comgoals.htm
 
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