Why I Love America

I’ve often woed and whined because America today has no sense of nostalgia–no reason for coming together. There is no industrial revolution. There is no JP Morgan, no Rockefeller. There is no “Roaring Twenties.” There is no Depression. There is no wartime effort. There are no radio firsides. There are no “greasers.” There are no drive-ins. There is no Hippy revolution. There are no Black Panthers. There are no Presidential assassins.

Some of these are good. Some of these are very bad. But where is the culture? Well, my young self, you’ll see it in retrospect as well. There was the Reagan administration. There was the Gulf War. There was Guns n’ Roses. There was Atlanta Braves baseball. (I’m from Atlanta!) There is the information age. And is this not still the melting pot? I’ve learned that there is culture in every corner here. I am an Anglo-Saxon man who likes sandwiches and rock music. Across the street from me lives a family/group of Hispanic people who like tortillas and accordian waltzes.

So why do I love America? I love America because she is strong. Have you ever studied the Constitution? Do so sometime. That document along with the Bill of Rights catapulted a war-slaughtered bunch of feeble colonists into the position of World Super Power in one hundred fifty years. Less than two hundred years! Do you even know how many centuries the world had been conquered in turns by France, England, Italy and China? How did she do it? Perhaps by giving her people freedom. Trust, they call it. People’s lives were free. People’s money was free. With all this freedom, people just flocked here. They couldn’t get here fast enough. What happened next? Population + money = STRENGTH! What companies can you think of today that do well? Coca Cola, BellSouth, The United States Government, UPS, Ford Motor Company? You can bet surely that these companies grew and became strong by treating their people well. America knew this formula: Give them all the personal freedom they can think of. Get the people here and let capitalism do the rest.

I love America because she is fair. Give her your tired, your hungry, your poor…and that’s just what the world has done. When this country was very very young, people heard about this land from across the world, and they were enchanted by what they heard. America didn’t care who came. She knew the teeming masses would all add up to one big shot at greatness. And all those who crossed the treacherous seas to get here had their equal chance. Your great great or great great great grandparents were among those on the boats. Aren’t you glad they got here? The Constitution guaranteed them a new life, as it does for immigrants today, whose descendents, one hundred years from now, will be glad they came. That fairness is immovable.

I love America because she is deliberate. No one will be deprived of life without due process. No laws can be passed without the concurrence of two-thirds of the House and a three-fourths vote in the Senate. Sure there is congressional “gridlock,” but consider the alternatives. We could follow the trend France has set and draft four new constitutions every one hundred years. For us, that would mean that in the year 2001, we would have had nine different systems of government. We could imitate the Soviet Union and live under the ever-flitting desire of a communist dictator. We could be like Germany…………..

Money is at the heart of the political agenda. When a man’s situation changes, so does his partisanship. A young man fresh out of college in a faltering job market wants government unemployment benefits and higher taxes on the rich. Twenty five years later with a Mercedes, 85% ownership on a house and kids in college, he is angry over welfare lines. He wants tax shelters for his money. With so many people’s lives changing at so many times, who is the consistent one? (It would be nice if everyone’s political agenda involved personal service instead of relying on the government to serve for them.) America will not change unless she knows it’s time to do so for the benefit of all of her children.

America has given me much. For those who have been maddened to blindness by the shortcomings of mere men attempting to govern other men, please remember the difference between the government and the country. “I hate America,” you say. Then I ask you: would you be willing to stand over the graves of just one man and his family, who stood on the front lines at Yorktown knowing he was going to die, read each of their names aloud and then even have the pride in your own heart to say, “I HATE AMERICA?!”

Today America continues to bless the world and her citizens as it has from her beginning. She is as virtuous today as she was over two hundred years ago. I have made the mistake of growing stale in my emotion for her. Culture is everywhere here. Nevertheless, as a man thinketh, so is he, and I think on her virtue often, grateful for the efforts of millions, giving even their lives that I may have mine. She makes me proud–happy, humble, strong, silent–proud, and I with only one life to give back.

So why do I really love America? She is God’s gift to the world.