I always get a little crazy when folks bloviate about how proud they are of America and to be American. I am posting this diary to see what people really mean when they say they are proud of this country.
So folks tend to shudder or denounce any dissent about America's greatness or America's shortfalls. As an American whom has has all male members of his family serve in the military for this nation either in the Air Force, Army, and Marines; I do take proud in my family members that have served this nation and their pride in their service even though they were treated poorly by the genral populous due to the color of the skin.
Aha ! Yes, the cat is out of the bag. I am of African-American descent and my experience in America is much different than those of lighter hue. Knowing the history of this nation and knowing in my own mind what Michelle Obama meant when she said, "......for the 1st time in my ADULT life, I am proud of America...."
The gasp that came out of the galleries of some Americans. From north and south, east and west. The mass media pretentiously wanted to know what she meant by such a statement. Pretty easy from my point of view. She sees as I see a man named Barack Obama, whom is a gentleman and a scholar, whom is a person of darker hue, whom is vying and winning the possibility and chance to be the president of the United States Of America.
I am in the same age range as Barack and Michelle. I also grew up in a family that had a mother and father whom were born in Texas in the 30's. The hideous stories you get told being a AA child as your parents relate stories that had happened to them growing up. The typical "N****R", and being chased by a group of white kids for no reason. To watching kids having to be escorted to school while mobs of white parents yelled epitaths at them.
I also remember watching the news, I had to be 7 or 8 yrs. old and seeing the riots in Boston as they were integrating the schools there. The one story that sticks out in my mind was the news report of a AA gentleman being attacked by a group of white men and being knocked down and then summarily impaled by an American flag.
Empathy would put you my shoes and make you think to yourself, "wow, I think I get it."
Being the ultimate optimist and being a proud and productive member of this society, after all I have been told through stories from my parents and grandparents, I can still say I am proud to be who I am first and also happy to be where I am today in my life and in my career.
I am living the American dream, but looking at the events of the past week with the Ferraro debacle and Hillary not coming out and "denouncing or rejecting" those comments and subtle hints of overtones from Bill Clinton during the SC primary and just the way race has bubbled up not from the Republicans, but by my own Democratic party. I ponder, what to be proud of since I still see that a super dose of melonin is the only difference between me and a person of lighter hue and this causes angst in some in the populous.
Will this crap ever die ? It won't unless our leaders want it to. True leadership can cure ills. It's true in business and true in the home and it's true for this nation. Right now, Hillary is not leading. She's bleeding the Democratic party in her bloodlust for power all the while letting surrogates attack Obama for his super dose of melanin and stunningly shunning a race of people that stuck by Bill and Hillary in their darkest hours. Shunned and stunned by the Clintons ? African-Americans ? Wow !!! Where do we go if Hillary steals this ? How should we feel ? Hell, how should we all feel ?
It is so tough in this environment to continue to "pretend" to have pride in a nation that continues to bob and weave on the issue of race.
But I do out of strength and love for what we want to be. What we want to be, is not whom we are. Therefore, most of us take pride in the idea of America, not what it actually is.
Politicians use race as a "wedge" because it divides, and some of our populous uses it as a way to separate us via fear.
So, are we all Americans or not ? I love this country because it is where I was born and as I stated above, this is the country every male in my family has served with pride from Korea to Vietnam and my cousins whom have served in Iraq.
Why are you proud of America ???