Simply Proud.

Sixteen years ago I was called a “n*****- lover” for having a black girlfriend, and I was in the minority to have a problem with it. This was living in the buckle of the Bible belt. I also got called a “Fa**ot” for just having a friend that was homosexual. This was the cool kids saying this to me. I wasn’t proud of that.

I look at what is going on in the news today, and for a moment think this country is in some serious trouble. But then I look back and remember how very different life is now, that if you say something like that people will rally against you rather than for you, now.

I know, and it is painful to think of, how very very far we have to go, and that becomes more evident to me every day, but for just a moment, can we take a step back, and take a look at how far we’ve come?

For many reasons I could be ashamed to call myself an American. But the truth is, I’ve been around enough to know we only have these problems because we allow our citizens the right to speak out. These things are seemingly a problem here where in other places they are not, because nowhere else on EARTH is there such an array of culture, of belief, of diversity, and through that, such an array of versatility and strength.

It takes me some time sometimes, but I almost always come to the conclusion at the end of the day, that we are stronger now than we were; that we have endured far more to come together than to break apart, and I have good reason to believe that America will move on the truth just as it always has.

Civil liberties, freedoms, human rights…they will always be threatened. But it is the American people who take up the steady strain of ensuring that they are preserved for another generation, and in the heart of every crisis people’s hearts shine through.

That’s the beauty of it. That’s the beauty of freedom, when the powers that be give the power to the people to decide whether to live in a better world than now or a world full of sin and hate, people almost always vote for a better one. That has happened consistently for over two centenniae. That is why other nations hate us, but still want our business and still emulate us and our values.

I’m simply proud to be an American, because America stands for freedom, and freedom just wins. What you see on the news is that freedom in action, people in the process of making each other better.

Because we live in a country that has this written on its gates:

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

 

These days we live in a country full of people that say it is okay to be proud of being ANYTHING….except for being American. When the truth is, it is America that stands up against the world, and sometimes even itself, to provide the right for its own people to be like that. And that is something no other nation has yet to dare… to be just that different, to win, and to be proud even when it seems like we failed, because of what we stood for.

And we do consistently what no other nation has done before as radically as we have done it. They can copy and paste but America is still the nation that sets the gold standard for that. We stand for each other.

Every tragedy, there are people waiting to donate. Every world crisis, who sends their army and private money to aid? America. Problems with cops? Let’s tour the country having a cookout with local police. It’s beautiful. It wasn’t always like that, but it has always been getting better. We have a long way to go, but that’s the beauty of it: we realize that, when most places poke fun at us, and don’t.

That, my friends, is America; that is the process of freedom, and that is why I’m still simply proud.

 

 

(http://www.libertystatepark.com/emma.htm)