Loving This Country

People who like to proclaim they love this country have a lot of funny attributes.

I'm not talking about the average citizen who goes about his everyday lie, pays his taxes, possibly serves in the military and exercises his right to vote.

I'm talking about those who feel the need to yell it out, generally implying that anyone who disagrees with them doesn't love this country.

First if you do love this country you would realize it is a land of free speech and free opinions, meaning not everyone has to agree with everyone else.  Failing to recognize that is hardly loving this country.

Second we are a nation of immigrants.  Very few of us are native Americans which means we are all immigrants or descendants of immigrants.  Attacking the more recent immigrants who are no different than earlier waves of immigrants is not loving this country, its attacking its very nature.

Third, our history is not all rosy.  Things happened that resulted in the near annihilation of Native Americans and the enslavement of millions.  We also saw a part of the country try to secede over the second issue, among others.  Not accepting our history is not loving this country, it is who we were, if not who we are.

We are clearly not the best in many areas, even if we want to claim we are number one in everything.  Many of our schools are sub-par and it shows in standard tests.  We have a lot of people who can't get satisfying work.  many of our citizens are effectively denied the right to vote.  Not everyone has access to adequate health care or the means to pay for it.  Our seniors do not all have comfortable retirements.  We could do a lot better and some countries do.

Love of country does not mean denying who we were, or who we are.  The country is the people in it, not the rocks.