Wait, No We're Not The Most Racially Diverse Country

Brazil is tri-racial.  Canada is now just as much, if not more of a beacon for immigrants.  Sorry, but that was gone sometime around when our friends who donated the Statue of Liberty and most of the gunpowder for the Revolutionary War were stricken from the Congressional Cafeteria menu and replaced with "Freedom Fries".

There are plenty of racially diverse countries: Australia, the U.K., Guyana, Trinidad, India, so on.

Switzerland is officially split between four major ethnicities and languages.  Without smugness or apprehension.

To claim that we're the most progressive, racially forward nation is a bald faced lie.

There are many testaments to our country's greatness.

And Condi Rice was right to point out we have a "birth defect".  "Birth Defect" sounds mild, in fact.

We are a great nation with a great heritage, deeply and humanly flawed.  Not excusably flawed.

Our fault demands redress and reform.  

We as individuals have choices in life.  While we are not responsible for the mistakes of our ancestors, we do inherit them.  We are responsible for our actions to make this a more humane society or a more structured one.  Whether we entrench groups (liberals, conservatives, blacks, whites, women, men, gays, straight) or whether we seek the appreciative ear that Barack Obama suggested in "A More Perfect Union".

This is fine line. Truth, I mean.  This country's progress is a shining light, but not enough to eclipse the darkness.

Sorry Lou.