Now that I've vented about America and globalization and everyone being lazy and knocked up, here's the good stuff. /1
We are, despite all efforts to drive us mad, a country that still feels kinship based on the ideals of being American. Even when we pull each other up short, it's over whether we think the other guys is being a good American. The ideals of the Founding matter to us. /2
We are remarkably at ease with calling each other "fellow" Americans in a way few nations do. (Sorry, Canada, sometimes it feels forced up there.) We do this even when we don't like it. It says our ideals are in our DNA. See it a lot when we travel. /3
We are generous. Emotional. Brave. Quick to act. We look for the right and we do it. We produce bravery that is unrelated to the soil beneath our feet and we fight like wolves far from home. We are a remarkable people. /4
We are selfish, but open. Suspicious and trusting. Independent, but ready to help. We take each loss among a citizen as loss to our community. /5
We create. We succeed. We fail. But we do not rest in those stations of life, we are dynamic, in motion, and ever seeing a better deal or new road. We are optimists. /6
We are terrible citizens, but we can be called to patriotism. Likewise, our citizens keep our together, the social bond that holds a nation whole in the face of the ordinary stress of consanguiniuty.
We are blessed, but we seem less inclined to accept that blessing. Maybe so. /7
We are blessed, but we seem less inclined to accept that blessing. Maybe so. /7
But it is the only place a person like me belongs. So I'm staying. /8x
