(08-22-2021, 09:28 AM)The Real Marty Wrote: So, if you all will indulge me, and stop the food fight for a few posts, I have an honest question with no hidden agenda.  And here it is:

What exactly do you mean if you say you are "proud to be an American?" 

I love this country.  I'm damn glad I was born here and live here.  I wouldn't live anywhere else.  Taken as a whole, it's the best place on earth.  But I wouldn't use the word "proud" because I didn't have anything to do with it.  I wasn't born here on purpose.  I'm not one of the founding fathers.  They're the ones that should be proud.  So should all the people who died defending this country.  They should be proud. 

I'm proud of my own accomplishments, in a way.  But I didn't cause myself to be born in the United States.  That was just luck. 

So what does it mean to you when you say you are "proud to be an American?"

Great questions!  For me I think of the months I spent in Europe and the nice people I met.  I was proud of being different from them, not that they are bad or anything, but I wouldn't want to be like them.  You pick up on certain things that set us apart.  We have an attitude that anyone can do anything at any time, and we set up guardrails in society accordingly.  They, on the other hand, are much more set up around the idea that your career path starts to get determined around age 9 and you will never have opportunities to try anything without the utmost in training. There are other examples.

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