Not Proud to be an American
I am proud when something I do turns out good, but being American isn’t something I did. By chance, I was born here. It would take great effort to leave, assuming I wanted to, so I can’t be proud of staying here either.
That doesn’t mean I am not happy to be an American. It doesn’t mean I am not grateful for the efforts of those who secured the freedoms I enjoy. It doesn’t mean I take the resulting opportunities for granted. I was born in a country where freedom really means something and opportunity isn’t just a word in the dictionary and I thank those who made it so.
That said, our freedoms and opportunity are experiencing a down day in the market. These prized commodities haven’t been doing so well lately. The Bill of Rights could use a trip to the restoration shop so as to shine more brightly. Unlike antiques, the patina of corruption, authoritarianism, excessive taxation and judicial activism greatly decrease the value of the most prized asset of our republic. That trip to the restoration shop will take investment of time and effort. Citizens need to supplement their complaints and disgust with action. They need to demand better from our elected officials. When the people they elect vote to infringe our rights, they need to take action to remove them from office. When judges start to nullify the constitution, they need to be removed.
If we don’t make an effort to preserve our freedoms; to hold the government to its constitutional limits; to fight not only threats from abroad, but those from within, the type of country the Constitution demands will be a distant memory. For that we should be ashamed. But if we demand the whole country be deemed a free-speech zone, stand up for gun rights, and anything else that honors the memory of George Mason, without whom, we most certainly would not have a Bill of Rights, then we can be proud that we have left to our children a free country. We can be proud to have invested in the freedom and opportunity they will inherit - a country they will be happy to call home. If they can be grateful for our efforts to preserve and enhance the liberties we ourselves inherited, then we can be proud we made it possible.
That doesn’t mean I am not happy to be an American. It doesn’t mean I am not grateful for the efforts of those who secured the freedoms I enjoy. It doesn’t mean I take the resulting opportunities for granted. I was born in a country where freedom really means something and opportunity isn’t just a word in the dictionary and I thank those who made it so.
That said, our freedoms and opportunity are experiencing a down day in the market. These prized commodities haven’t been doing so well lately. The Bill of Rights could use a trip to the restoration shop so as to shine more brightly. Unlike antiques, the patina of corruption, authoritarianism, excessive taxation and judicial activism greatly decrease the value of the most prized asset of our republic. That trip to the restoration shop will take investment of time and effort. Citizens need to supplement their complaints and disgust with action. They need to demand better from our elected officials. When the people they elect vote to infringe our rights, they need to take action to remove them from office. When judges start to nullify the constitution, they need to be removed.
If we don’t make an effort to preserve our freedoms; to hold the government to its constitutional limits; to fight not only threats from abroad, but those from within, the type of country the Constitution demands will be a distant memory. For that we should be ashamed. But if we demand the whole country be deemed a free-speech zone, stand up for gun rights, and anything else that honors the memory of George Mason, without whom, we most certainly would not have a Bill of Rights, then we can be proud that we have left to our children a free country. We can be proud to have invested in the freedom and opportunity they will inherit - a country they will be happy to call home. If they can be grateful for our efforts to preserve and enhance the liberties we ourselves inherited, then we can be proud we made it possible.
posted by Brian Jones | 5:08 PM
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