Patriotism This Year · 3:41pm Jul 4th, 2019
Plenty of people probably aren't feeling very patriotic today. I know I'm not. Between the atrocities at the border, the attacks on women's and lgbt rights, and the threats to the press and rule of law? It's easy to feel the country is in a downward spiral, if it was ever that great at all.
Which is why I think this year we need to focus on reaffirming the values that our nation should exemplify, even if we don't live up to them, and resolve to do better. We should be a nation which believes that diversity is strength instead of weakness. Where you can live your life without fear of persecution for who you are and what you believe. A nation whose people stand against tyranny and injustice, and where no one is above the law. And above all, having a fundamental respect for each other and the value of human life.
There are many times when we have failed to live up to our values. And it will be a long time before those dreams are realized in full. But I do believe these are values we share. And that together we can move forward and make progress, even in the face of evil and adversity.
Coukdn't have said it better myself!
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News Flash: It isn't just America that has those problems nearly every country has them as there is NO perfect country.
5084261
I never said anything about there being a perfect country out there. Just that ours is not a very good place to be in its current state. And with that, I end my commenting contributions to this post, because all I even did was just agree with the one who initially posted it.
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There's countries where conditions are worse.
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I never denied that. I'm just not fond of the morality (or lackthereof) present in the ruling party at this time and how it's affected the lives of the people, like getting one of my best friends fired.
I'm trying very hard to be civil right now, and would like to leave the conversation at that if you don't mind. Please, do not push this further. I won't respond if you do, so don't try.
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It's alright I understand.
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Lots of countries have problems yes. If I lived there and was celebrating a holiday about them I’d be talking about them.
But, in the US, we have some particularly sharp issues. We shouldn’t aspire to be ‘not the worst’, especially since there’s such a broad field. We should be among the best, especially given how we like to think of ourselves. And... we’re not. We’re really really not.
I’m going to specifically cite concentration camps on our borders and actual frelling Nazis being given supporting winks by our President, who has no respect for the rule of law and I’m not convinced won’t try to stay past his term. But there are a number of things I can cite.
Yeah, we could be worse. But when what we have is so bad that doesn’t mean much. Which is why we need to resolve to do better.
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I'll concede on those points, I've discovered a rather interesting fact about Concentration Camps in that their usage may date back to the 1830's while the term originates in the Ten Years War.
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Even if those get you down and feel not really patriotic, you can still celebrate this holiday in your own way for one of the core reasons this holiday was created: This was the day America declared her freedom and I will also point out that the founding fathers would be rolling in their graves and would be shaking their heads right now.
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I don't get into politics but that doesn't mean I can't comment on their stupid decisions.