With all of the current events decrying ‘systemic racism’ and how terrible the US is as a country, I’d like to argue one for the Defense.
I consider myself extremely lucky. Not only was I born in a time of incredible technological advances, in an era of relatively little war (those in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria recognized), I was born IN AMERICA (Michigan to be precise, not that that matters). Many bash our country, which is their right, but I’d like to give America a pat on the back. Here goes.
Over all of history, throughout all of civilization, conquest has taken the brutal method. The conquered vanquish the conquered, either as slaves, subjects, or mortal victims. Except here. Yes, we’ve made a few mistakes over the several centuries before and after we became a ‘country’. Could we have handled the native Indians better? Maybe. Did we slaughter many during our Westward expansion? Absolutely. Yet we still maintain reservations today–not well, but the attempt was made. Compare our approach to the invasions and ‘annexes’ of other countries over the years. I think we did and do OK.
We are such an evil country. Except that we CORRECT our known evils, whether they be slavery (1865, but still practiced elsewhere today), women’s rights (1920, but still prevented elsewhere today), discrimination (1960s, still practiced elsewhere today), etc. Judge our founding documents not by their original state, but by their Amended version. Our documents were so well thought out, they were changed to correct historical wrongs, as we saw fit to do so at the time. Name another country that has done so. You will be right in pointing out our past injustices, but completely wrong in focusing on problems we have solved. It wasn’t free, and it didn’t come easy—600,000 dead in our Civil War, as an example.
We helped win TWO World Wars—on other countries’ shores. And after we were the majority of the liberating forces, did we leave when it was over? Hardly. Via the Marshall Plan, we spent MILLIONS of dollars to help re-build Europe. OUR people funded that. We fought two major conflicts in the Middle East, and defeated our enemies. Yet we didn’t colonize them. We FREED them. There are no additional US territories there, although we could have established them. Critics say we fought in the Middle East for oil, yet we didn’t TAKE the oil. There is a pattern here. I recognize that our country likely meddled in the affairs of dozens of other countries over the years, covertly and/or overtly. I still like our balance sheet.
I defy you to find a country, any country, that has done as good or better job as the US. If you find it, move there. I just don’t think you’ll locate it. Here, you’re even free to bitch–no worries over imprisonment or death for doing so. Turn on TV news, and our President is called everything but nice—even a dictator or a tyrant. Except if he were truly a dictator or tyrant, those that accused him of such would be ‘disappeared’, never to be seen again.
So, warts and all, I’m proud of my country. While the economic and political freedoms are far from ideal, and the trend is toward more taxation not less, and our government spends like drunken sailors (no offense intended to drunken sailors—at least they only spend THEIR money), I am extremely happy to call the United States of America home. (Metaphysically pats country on the back).
