I defended America tonight in front of my Poli Sci tutorial.

[rockymountaindem]

I'm not sure where else I could post this without drawing out the usual crowd of poseurs, hosers (hoseurs?) and provacateurs , so here I am.

As some of you may know I attend the University of Toronto. My international relations class includes 1 hour of discussion per week with about 10 other students in order to make the class of 200 more meaningful.

So tonight we were talking about the AIDS crisis and why there aren't affordable drugs. Of course there are people who try to blame everything on America. One time I saw this girl just mindlessly doodling "I hate America" on her notebook. That is not a normal doodle. You can see what I have to put up with.

So then after class she starts in with all this stuff about our behavior in Latin America, the Cold War, and even dropping the atomic bomb on Japan. I calmly refuted her claims and presented what I felt to be the mainstream American perspective, which I mostly share. At the end I got her to admit that other nations act poorly sometimes, and that she should not place all her frustration on America. I also got her to admit that perhaps she is a little naieve and idealistic. I gotta say I felt pretty proud of myself and proud to be an American afterwards.

"Pinko-commie America-hating liberal" I am not. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, freeps.

[elshiva]

1. I don't hate America.

I don't agree with American actions like dropping the Atomic bomb and the IWR, but Goddamnit, we are good people here. We can still have a democracy one day if we work hard.
Canadians rule, though, too.

[GRLMGC]

2. I don't hate America

but I recognize the bad things this country has done. I mean, the reason I'm here is result of bad U.S. policy.

[elshiva]

3. You are here cos of bad policy?

Please Explain.

[GRLMGC]

4. Oh, well the US funded the right wing death squads

in El Salvador. My family fled the country

[elshiva]

5. I'm sorry, GRLMGC.

[GRLMGC]

6. Oh, it's fine

I'm just hoping the government is learning from its mistakes but from what I've heard about their plans for Iraq, I'm not so sure they have.

[elshiva]

7. Iran creeps me out.

Did you see West Wing tonight? Is Iran making nuclear weapons (subject of West Wing)? Maybe Bartlett, will be cautious, but I think Dubya's gonna rush to war again. Gotta be the war president.

[GRLMGC]

8. Yeah, so he can declare himself Emperor

Ugly thought. Wouldn't be surprised if it happened, though.

[elshiva]

9. He already is the Emperor.

Don't you read Doonesbury?

That's Dubya in the Roman Emperor's helmet at one of his bogus press conferences.

[TheDonkey]

12. Me too...

I'm an African American.

[TheDonkey]

10. Yea, I get annoyed with this counrty but it's a great place

with a lot of oppurtunity to become better.

Whenever I leave the country, of course I swell with patriotism when dealing with ignorant haters.

[ginnyinWI]

11. I love America

That's why I hate its current president. He's wrecking America, step by step. I only hope there is enough left when he's through.:(

That's why I worked so hard as a volunteer for JK's campaign. I have three kids, and I'd like them to be able to be proud of their country and its values. :cry:

The president is not America; the people are. I only hope the rest of the world knows this and doesn't hate us.

[WildEyedLiberal]

13. If I didn't love America

I wouldn't hate Bush so goddamn much.

Freepers think that "loving America" means waving a flag around, airbrushing an eagle onto your pickup, and bombing other countries. Well, I think loving America means fighting to ensure that we live up to the vision of a democratic, peaceful republic founded on the principles of liberty and justice - the America that our ancestors fought and died to create, and that others through history have died to defend and preserve.

I get chills when I read the Gettysburg Address. I get tears in my eyes when I think about what all our soldiers throughout history - from the Revolution to World War II, and beyond - have sacrificed to ensure that America remains free, united, and safe from tyranny. America is a nation of peace and justice, not a nation of arrogant imperialism - in fact, that is what we fought to free ourselves from. Tell me I don't love America, freepers. Just try and tell me.

[rockymountaindem]

14. [applause]

[sandnsea]

15. Let America Be America Again

That's what I believed in and I'm still so upset that it slipped through our fingers that I don't even let myself go there very much. It would just be too painful. I love what we're supposed to be, I'm really not so sure I love what we are.

[saracat]

16. That is exactly the way I feel, sandnsea..

You took the words right out of my mouth. I , too, am not so sure about what we are.

[TayTay]

17. Did you guys ever see this?

It is one of my all time favorite poems. I carry it with me wherever I go.

Let America Be America Again
Langston Hughes

http://www.poets.org/poems/poems.cfm?prmID=1473

This is just the ending.... go read the whole thing, please.


Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!


From The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Copyright © 1994 the Estate of Langston Hughes.

The great genius of America is in it's promise that this land, this great flowing land of dreams and hope and opportunity, is a dream for all of it's people. Like all dreams, we have not realized it yet, but the dream remains. Some people want to limit this dream to those who have only the membership card, the right associations, the right amount of friends in high places and the cash. Never.

Our Constitution, our sacred founding document does not say, "We, the Rich and Connected," it quite loudly and plainly states, "We, The People." And I'll be occupying a cold grave on the day that I let someone tell me otherwise. We have deep and horrible problems, but the answer to this is not to consolidate more power in the hands of the few. It's to trust in the vision of our founders and the amazing, take-no-prisoners activists and heroes who worked their whole lives to make that vision real for more people. My America is the land that honors those later day heroes and honors their visions for equality, hope and opportunity.

Damn it, I believe!