Oh Say Can You See

Back in the day folks didn't go shopping on holidays---because hardly anything was open. Fireworks stands, a gas station or two, maybe a corner grocery but that was it. Really, unless you go to a parade, or a family gathering, it just looks like any other day with a bunch of American flags hung from the city streets. Wal-mart parking lot was full when I went by, so was Safeway, and MarketPlace foods.

I stayed home this year--no parades---not because I don't love parades, I do. But because I didn't want to spend the gas. I watched the neighborhood fireworks and thought about what America means to me. I could say all the trite things that everyone says, greatest country on earth, freedom, etc. And to some extent that is all very true---but it doesn't really say anything new.

What being American means to me--is that I'm a single woman who raised three children alone--and this country made if possible for me to earn a living, buy home, and see my children through college. Maybe I could do that elsewhere in the world--for sure in Europe, but there are lots of places that that wouldn't have been possible. See the problem with saying that America is the greatest country on earth, etc., is that it is the only frame of reference I have. Although I've traveled outside the country---I haven't lived outside the country. Doesn't everyone feel that their country is the greatest, the best? Aren't they like me, the country they live is all they know. I love this country because it is mine, like my mother is mine. I didn't choose my mother and I didn't choose this country. Both have been good to me, both have disappointed me.

I think there is a difference between loving the land and the people of America and loving the government. I truly love the people and the land. The government, provides me with safety nets, like Social Security and Medicare when I retire (hopefully), it provides unemployment when I cannot work. The government facilitates trade with other countries, defends the land and people from invaders and is there to hold us up in times of natural disasters. It's important to remember all things that the government does that holds us all together day to day, year to year, century to century. Because too often, and I am certainly guilty of this, we think of the government as politics. I'm not crazy about the current politics--more accurately I would prefer that the last eight years of non-leadership didn't happen. But I truly appreciate the government.

Being proud to be an American is not quite as cut and dry as the song would imply. Being an American is complicated: it is not all truisms and platitudes--it is scandals and greed, and back-biting politics, as well as altruism, generosity, and leadership. Some days I'm prouder than others. What I do know is that America is all I've got--all I've got to give to my children and grandchildren. I want it to be strong and kind and I don't give a damn if it is the greatest nation in world to anyone but us.