It's so American of you to think like that

- by Steve Hopkins

When you‘re feeling un-American, keep this in mind. It’s because you’re an American that you can feel free to express those feelings and thoughts. It’s because of all those Americans who have gone before to create our country and fight for the right to think freely and without fear. All Americans, even un-American Americans have that right. So when you think un-American it’s because you’ve been raised in the American society that has allowed and even taught you that thinking differently is ok and even desirable. If you’d been born in any other country and raised there you would have a whole different take on it. It’s because you’re an American that you can travel to other countries and learn about other cultures and even adopt their ways if you wish. It’s because you’re an American that you can worship any entity you choose. In so many other countries these things are not true.
The purist cannot be a realist or an idealist. They are mutually exclusive given the nature of the world and mankind. A realist can be an idealist but must allow for the world and mankind.
No one system is perfect. No one society has all the answers. We have descended from the apes and in the animal world all animals fight in some way for territory, domination, food and procreation. No matter what country or society you enter you will find those same traits in man. It is natural to defend ones own and I defy anyone to show me a country that hasn’t in someway done so in the past. The Asian countries especially were and are very antagonistic towards each other and have been since way before we got there. Whether or not we are thinking animals makes no difference. We are and will always be lost to the very hidden and primal ways of our ancestors. We are not even more civilized about it. Just more sophisticated.
The answer is that in a society such as ours we can change things. We can make things better or worse. We can rise up and speak our minds and write letters and tell our politicians how we feel. We can protest in many ways and make things better. My daughter has told me she feels Wal-Mart is evil. I have looked into what she might be talking about. I have found they are not the parental unit image portrayed on their TV commercials but a very large and silently active giant that could probably use a little cutting down to size. I like to shop there because it can be fun. Lots of stuff to buy. But I have decided she is probably right in her assessment and have not spent a nickel there for the holidays and will stay away until I see some change in the way they do business. Do I feel small in my effort? Not really. I have talked to others a little bit. It’s the kernel that grows the stalk of corn. We’ll see.
Do I need results now! No. Shit happens. Good things come to those who wait. What goes around, comes around. Etc. Those truisms really work.
So as an American I am attacking an American icon because I am an American. I am able to because of my birthright. The very things that protect them are the same things that make me able to make them change.
What a great system!. Like it or not???

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