All I know is, I'm damned glad to be an American

[task0778]

For all it's mistakes large and small and all of the problems we have today, there's no other country I'd rather be living in. And I've been to a few other countries in my time, and they ain't bad places to live (some of them), but in many of those places you pay in excess of 50% of your paycheck to the gov't and that's damn near everybody rather than just the rich. Those other places have their own problems you know, the grass ain't always that green somewhere else. Most of those other places depend on us for their national security and we do most of the innovation in whatever field of endeavor you care to name. Most of the time when tragedies strike, we are among the 1st to show up. There's a reason why a whole lot of people from everywhere else would rather be here than anywhere else, so what does that say about the US? For all the bitching, pissing, and moaning that goes on, how many would really leave if we offered them a one-way ticket outta here, with the proviso that they can't come back?

So we ain't perfect, never have been and never will be, cuz we are human beings and subject to the same failings as everyone else is wherever they live. Our gov't sucks not because of it's structure but because the people running it in our name are not doing so with our best interests but instead their own. And too often we let them get away with it, and that is on us. And that shameful gov't has done a lot of shameful things in the past, things we should've done sooner or not done at all. Wrongs were committed, as they have for as long as human beings have walked the Earth. But we have at least tried to do better.

 

[mudwhistle]

You're such a racist.

 

[Moonglow]

Now, go out and buy some made in China fireworks and enjoy.

 

[whitehall]

Guaranteed Constitutional freedoms listed in the Bill of Rights. What a Country. Americans often make the mistake of assuming that other countries have regulations relating to "right to council" and search and seizure and a hundred other issues but it ain't so. Thank your lucky stars that you were "Born in the USA' or you were lucky enough to sneak across the border (for now).

 

[PoliticalChic]

For all it's mistakes large and small and all of the problems we have today, there's no other country I'd rather be living in. And I've been to a few other countries in my time, and they ain't bad places to live (some of them), but in many of those places you pay in excess of 50% of your paycheck to the gov't and that's damn near everybody rather than just the rich. Those other places have their own problems you know, the grass ain't always that green somewhere else. Most of those other places depend on us for their national security and we do most of the innovation in whatever field of endeavor you care to name. Most of the time when tragedies strike, we are among the 1st to show up. There's a reason why a whole lot of people from everywhere else would rather be here than anywhere else, so what does that say about the US? For all the bitching, pissing, and moaning that goes on, how many would really leave if we offered them a one-way ticket outta here, with the proviso that they can't come back?

So we ain't perfect, never have been and never will be, cuz we are human beings and subject to the same failings as everyone else is wherever they live. Our gov't sucks not because of it's structure but because the people running it in our name are not doing so with our best interests but instead their own. And too often we let them get away with it, and that is on us. And that shameful gov't has done a lot of shameful things in the past, things we should've done sooner or not done at all. Wrongs were committed, as they have for as long as human beings have walked the Earth. But we have at least tried to do better.

I was born elsewhere....but I was born an American.



Kinda like this.....


When Peter Schramm’s family fled Hungary, he writes:

“But where are we going?” I asked

“We are going to America,” my father said.

“Why America?” I prodded

“Because, son…we were born Americans, but in the wrong place,” he replied.
American by Choice

 

[Concerned American]

I was born elsewhere....but I was born an American.

Me too, Tokyo, 1951