4th of July ReflectionsWithout exception, reservation, or qualification, I will always be proud of the United States of America. That's not to say that do not have some great moral evils in our past. How this great nation could simultaneously enshrine the notion that all men are created equal and are endowed by their creator certain inalienable rights while simultaneously making other men property of those men is beyond me.
Yes, the ramifications of that injustice persist today as you cannot have two families walk down those very opposite paths and wind up at the same destination. With each generation, we are getting closer to merging those two timelines. I don't know if it will happen in my lifetime, but I can either commit myself to pulling them closer together or pushing them further apart. As my and my household, I will commit my days to pulling them together.
Manifest Destiny led to some pretty terrible atrocities against the native people and friends, we've had airplanes longer than women have had the right to vote in this country. Despite acts of inexplicable gallantry, men of color could not command white men in what we call the greatest generation.
My mom went to segregated schools and as such, it was not that far back in history, one generation, where black and white kids couldn't go to the same schools. America has gotten much wrong but that is only because our nation is infested with humans and we are fallable fallen creatures. Which brings me to my point.
I will always be proud of America because we have always shown that we are willing to self correct. Let's face it, just 60 to 75 years ago, humans conquered other humans and did terrible things to one another on an unprecedented scale. That's humanity's story, not the singular story of the United States.
I've travelled the world in both war and peace and I'm here to tell you, the rest of those people outside our borders are not exactly acing the humanity test either. Not even you Canada, you're close, but you still got that jacked up bacon thing that frequently pisses me off.
Friends, the world is not getting it right and neither are we. However, we are self correcting. Slowly and painfully, we are riding that long arch of the moral universe that bends toward justice. We fight and argue with each other and that's largely because we liked each other a lot more before we knew what our countrymen felt about every single topic on the internet. January 6th was a travesty, but I'm here to tell you that if it were any other country, if our democratic institutions were just a bit weaker, our elected government would have fallen.
We have a lot of self correcting to go and I'm not foolish enough to think that I'll see perfect in my lifetime, so I'll guess I'll have to settle for 'Merica, better than the rest of the world. Because sooner or later, we self correct. Granted, not always as quick as corrected that prohibition on alcohol thing, but sooner or later, we get there.
That's why I am now and always will be proud of the United States of America. To all my friends judging from other nations, I leave you with a July 4th, screw you buddy your country can't human any better than we can. Now, if you will excuse me I have to go watch my fellow Americans start an insane amount of wildfires today as a result of ignorant firework usage. We trying to human better, we really are, but "Merica!
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