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Un-American Americans like you
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by Proud American with a response from Helen & Harry Highwater, Unknown News
Nov. 29, 2005| |
What does it feel like to hate your country? What did America do that you despise her so? Do you hate the flag? Do you hate American soil that people die trying to reach? Do you hate every aspect of American culture? Have you ever said anything good about America?
I hate un-American Americans like you, because you hate America and everything it stands for.
You'll probably just put this on your "hate mail" page and make fun of me, because you don't have the courage or integrity to answer my questions. But my questions are for real, and I dare you to answer.
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Proud American
Do we love the flag, sleep in American flag jammies, and wear an American flag lapel pin like Dan Rather did? Well, no, we're able to remember what country we were raised in, without wallpapering our apartment with the familiar stars and stripes pattern.
Do we love this continent-wide hunk of dirt, and love the dirt in Alaska and the dirt in Hawaii more than the dirt in adjacent Canadian territories or the dirt on other Pacific islands? No, we're not dirt-worshippers. But we do think most of the people who die trying to reach American soil should be allowed to live on American soil instead, and we wonder what's wrong with people who want to build fences at the Mexican border and shoot immigrants as they cross.
Your questions, Proud American, are profoundly silly.
Far more important than the American flag or American soil, is the American Constitution. But we don't even 'love' that piece of paper, the document with codified freedom alongside slavery, civil rights for white men who owned property, with lesser rights or no rights for citizens who didn't meet that threshold. The Constitution is worth some respect considering its time, kind of like the special effects in the original King Kong, but it doesn't hold up to modern standards, and it's toothless, and all too easy for American authorities to ignore.
I do not love every aspect of American culture. I do not love Ben Affleck, nor Jennifer Garner. There are many American novels I've never read, and thus cannot claim to love. The music that most loudly calls itself all-American, country and western, is perhaps a distant third among genres for me, behind real rock'n'roll and jazz.
Pay attention, Proud American, here's the important part:
I love the idea of freedom, and I love my country for its long track record of making more freedom. It took too long, but eventually, the slaves were freed. Eventually, women were understood to have rights. Eventually, civil rights weren't about property. Even Native Americans were considered citizens, by 1924. At a fairly steady pace, every generation of Americans have been noticeably more free than their parents.
I love that about America. Do you?
Certainly, I hate most American politicians, and I especially hate the current band of bastards, who are working so very hard to turn back time, to reduce freedom instead of expanding it.
I hate America's hypocrisy, posing as the land of the free while imprisoning people for smoking disallowed leaves, or having disallowed sex with consenting adults. I hate America's long record of quashing freedom for other nations, while pretending that "freedom is on the march."
And I enthusiastically hate Americans like you -- who hide behind America's greatness, to pretend that America has done no wrong.
I hate Americans who turn their backs, pretend not to know, and shush anyone who complains when America kills tens of thousands of utterly innocent people.
I hate Americans who state or imply that it's wrong to criticize America when the nation has gone horrifyingly wrong.
I hate Americans who seem to think freedom of speech is only for singing "God Bless America."
I hate Americans who think America's wrongs are only historical, never present-day.
I hate Americans who think their nation's destiny is to rule the world with bombs from above and occupying armies.
I hate Americans like you, who think it's "un-American" to expect and demand the very best of America, or that it's somehow "un-American" to argue that the nation should actually live up to its famous but often false high ideals.
© by the authors.
What do you think?
I can't afford therapy, but boy do I need it. So as an affordable alternative, I pound my anger into a weekly column here.
Fair warning: My parents were repressed -- using any bad words would get my mouth washed out with soap, literally. I still remember the sickly flavor of DoveTM. So as an adult, vulgarity helps with the healing. If naughty language offends you, beat the rush and get offended now.
This page is for my own good, not yours, so you may not like it, but I don't care.
About the authors
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Helen and Harry Highwater have published Unknown News since 1997. We're a married couple sharing a byline à la Lennon and McCartney, and "I" can be either of us, or both of us. If you're consumed by curiosity, it's safe to assume the more boisterous and aggressive bits come from Helen, and anything ladylike or demure is probably Harry's work.
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I love the idea of freedom, and I love my country for its long track record of making more freedom.
It took too long, but eventually, the slaves were freed. Eventually, women were understood to have rights. Eventually, civil rights weren't about property. Even Native Americans were considered citizens, by 1924.
At a fairly steady pace, every generation of Americans have been noticeably more free than their parents.
At a fairly steady pace, every generation of Americans have been noticeably more free than their parents.
I love that about America.
Do you?
Certainly, I hate most American politicians, and I especially hate the current band of bastards, who are working so very hard to turn back time, to reduce freedom instead of expanding it.
I hate America's hypocrisy, posing as the land of the free while imprisoning people for smoking disallowed leaves, or having disallowed sex with consenting adults.
I hate America's long record of quashing freedom for other nations, while pretending that "freedom is on the march."
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