Can you be proud of your country...

[ColbertWatcher]

...for all the good it has done, yet not be ashamed for all the bad?

Is pride possible without the counterpart shame?

I am ashamed by Abu Ghraib. I am ashamed of the slow response to Rwanda and Katrina and the lingering racism, sexism, hunger and poverty.

I can be proud of my country for eventually righting most wrongs. I can be proud for the hope our nation symbolizes to people around the world.
I can be proud that we truly offer opportunity.

But, I am not ignorant of our history nor am I blinded by threats or scare tactics questioning my patriotism.

I have the balls to love my country while expecting better.

[Booster]

1. Great post. Let's just say I've been extremely proud of this great

country in the past, but not so much lately. I'm most ashamed of people thumbing their nose at our laws when we are supposed to be a country based on laws. I'm ashamed of my own party for not having the balls to do their jobs in Wash DC. I'm ashamed that we've jailed so many of our own for petty little crimes, and then let people with money like O.J. and Phil Spector get away with murder. Again, great post and I agree with all you said.

[ColbertWatcher]

2. Thank you. n/t

[thunder rising]

6. I'm not proud of this country, I live with it. I've got nowhere else to go.

[blondeatlast]

3. Remember the old RW nutso bumpersticker, "I love my country, but

fear my government?"

Funny how true that is NOW.

I love my country and that's why I expect her to do better.

[wiggs]

4. Good point. We've been living with "you're either with us or against us" for too long. nt

[EFerrari]

5. I seem to have been born without any need at all to engage in nationalism.

I care a great deal about people. States, not so much.

[Kip Humphrey]

9. patriotism is an opiate by which people are subdued by the powerful.

[EFerrari]

10. And I could never afford most hard drugs, Kip.

lol

:hi:

[Harry Monroe]

7. I'll be proud of my country once again on January 20, 2009

When President Barack H. Obama is sworn in and he with a Democratic controlled Congress begins to repair the damage of the past 8 years. I haven't been very proud of this country at all for a very long time. I'm hoping I can hold my head up high once again as I travel the world (My job takes me overseas quite a bit), instead of continually apologizing for our President and his Administration. In the many countries I have traveled in (on every continent except Australia and Antarctica) I can say with some authority that I have NEVER witnessed such hatred, disgust, revulsion and universal loathing for an American president and his Administration as I have seen in these past 7 1/2 years.

[ColbertWatcher]

8. Outside of work, have you ever pretended to be Canadian? n/t

[NotThisTime]

11. I agree with you and am continually bombarded by the Australian's regarding our political arena

And have been for 10 years, every time we go....

The Aussies are very hospitable, but have an intense dislike for GWB, they see exactly what is happening, and they are smart enough and progressive enough to figure it out.

[ColbertWatcher]

12. Next day, last chance kick. n/t