People have made claims that I am Anti-American for expressing dissatisfaction about American foreign policy or dismay at the ills of American socity.
To be honest, I do not think I am anti-American. I think I am more pro American than many of the people in the country who like to wave flags and buy t-shirts but who seem happy to turn a blind eye when things are not right and happy to see it's ideals sold to the highest bidder.
IMO the true patriots are those who are willing to stand up and take the flak for saying "this isn't good enough, we demand better". Saying "we're the best" may sound good but it signifies that there is no room for improvement. There always is. If people are happy to see any behaviour and any action as being ok and "good enough", let alone above reproach or criticism, then I don't believe they truly value the ideals that America claims to represent.
Is America the best country on earth? No, I don't think so. I don't think there IS a "best country" as they are all different, each with good points and bad points.
It is a very nice country full of rich diversity with some great ideals and has some very good people in it like every other country. It can be great and do marvelous things. It can also be a not so great place sometimes.
One of the founding principles is surely the striving for making things better. To constantly be improving and building an even better America for tomorrow.
That seems lacking somehow. It appears (to me, as an outsider) as if it's sometimes become a kind of hollow mantra. Kind of like Disney-world but when you look a little closer you see that the paint is all chipped off and it's a little worn and not quite what it used to be or should be.
There will always be those happy with how it is now and content to think that "we are the best" because they have been told that they are the best all their lives. It doesn't make them the best though and as in so many fields of human endeavor, this attitude will lead to a decline.
Being better takes effort and endeavour. Not effort in the wrong way like invading countries or putting a man in space, but effort to make a great society where everyone would want to live. Often, this is a harder effort to make and involves more personal input closer to home and perhaps some tough choices about the kind of society that people want. It seems that people have become content for "Great" to mean "Military Might". People try and put a band-aid on society by building gated-communities with higher fences or locking up more of the poor and disadvantaged. Somewhere along the line this will cease to be viable and the whole system will become unstable. As we've seen in LA and NO it just takes a triggering event for society and law and order to break down on a massive scale.
The people who made America great did not sit complaining about criticism or try to silence anyone who criticises. Instead they did something about what was wrong. The first step is recognising and accepting that something can be wrong of course and some people seem to find this difficult, almost treating "America" as a religion and an infallible deity who cannot be questioned. They went further though, they put in place freedom of political expression and the right to bear arms against the government - they knew and recognised that many times the country WOULD be wrong and would need to be told it was wrong. It seems strange that some are happy to try and silence critics and shout anyone down who perhaps bears a message or opinion that they don't agree with while at the same time proclaiming their nations greatness because of it's freedoms ... such as the freedom of speach. So, complain all you like and label me Anti-American if it suits you. I consider myself a true patriot and friend to true Americans and will look forward to visiting again sometime soon (probably invading from the cold north). "Have a nice day"