"I don't think it does any harm just once in awhile to acknowledge that the whole country isn't in flames, that there are people in the country besides politicians, entertainers, and criminals."
- Charles Kuralt (1934-1997), travel correspondent
While expressing his views about why Howard Dean has gone down in flames, Jeff Jarvis at his weblog, BuzzMachine, made the point that, "We the voters, didn't want to hear Dean (and Gore behind him) telling us how screwed up our country was and how much we needed to change it...We wanted to hear a candidate start by saying he liked America, he loved America."
Someone calling himself "Franky," who took exception to Jeff's conclusions, left a comment challenging him to "...name the exceptional things about America that make it great," then facetiously answered his own request. Jeff responded to "Franky" in this post, listing nine things that he feels are extraordinary about our country, then invited his readers to contribute their thoughts. Over 140 have done so as I write this.
While I enjoyed reading what Jeff had to say, I must admit that the comments, including the negative ones, were also thought-provoking. Take a few minutes to visit the links, and while you're at it, take a look at the many excellent comments those who've read Jeff's posts have made. You may want to become a part of the discussion too. What do you think makes this country great?
4 comments:
This country is great because of all the freedoms we do have. We also have the best possibilities to make something of ourselves and to make things better for our children. That is why it is so discouraging to see these possibilities slip away and our children roped into an economy that will economically strangle them way into the future. We can and should do better by them.
Kuralt hit it on the head...the greatness of this country has been the contributions of decent, honest, hard-working, God-fearing people that basically led lives of anonymity and routine. At one time we held the 10 Commandments in high regard and history tells us they have been a good guide for living with others. These "normal" people no longer get press coverage. Just the degenerates and
fools that think they can mock our Creator and His priciples indefintely in the name of inclusion.
I'm not sure if thoughful self-praise or thoughtless self-criticism does more harm. I do wish our politicians would stop calling the US "the greatest country in the world." (I haven't come across an instance of any President before Jimmy Carter using that phrase.) If we are that, we don't need to have our elected officials saying it all the time. Let people from other countries tell us that. And then we can think about whether it means something or if it's meaningless flattery. - Bruce
My liberal son and I have debated the "America is great" issue many times. He leans more toward your view than mine, which makes for good dialogue. I do think America is a great country even with all its warts. While I haven't visited that many other countries, I haven't seen, read, or heard about one I'd rather live in than this one. I believe if you opened all the borders in the world giving people free access to any country they wanted to live in, an inordinate number of them would come here.
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