Friday, January 16, 2009
Proud Before It Was Cool To Be Proud
A few quick words on the sentiment this piece reports: Americans, Feeling the Love
“It's cool to be an American again, Wyatt said. "Finally! I'm tired of pretending I'm Canadian."
Damn – Canada’s gain is our loss.
Through my time in the Navy and now with my job, I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to have been pretty much around the world, spending time in, among other places, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Poland and Israel. No matter where, though, I have always been proud to say I was an American…even (or, more accurately, especially) in France. Perhaps I was just lucky but I’ve never really experienced much of the anti-American spiel that so many left-leaning expatriates seem to inspire. And the few times I have? Who cares – what citizen of what country has a better story to tell than ours?
On Inauguration Day I will be out of the country. Obviously, I didn’t vote for Mr. Obama nor am I particularly enthusiastic about what lies ahead with his administration. But I know I will still be proud to be an American come 12:01 PM EST and should anyone ask me then or thereafter, I will tell them that Mr. Obama is my president. I consider it my duty as an American, especially after reading about the poor representation we’ve had overseas for so many years.
“It's cool to be an American again, Wyatt said. "Finally! I'm tired of pretending I'm Canadian."
Damn – Canada’s gain is our loss.
Through my time in the Navy and now with my job, I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to have been pretty much around the world, spending time in, among other places, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Poland and Israel. No matter where, though, I have always been proud to say I was an American…even (or, more accurately, especially) in France. Perhaps I was just lucky but I’ve never really experienced much of the anti-American spiel that so many left-leaning expatriates seem to inspire. And the few times I have? Who cares – what citizen of what country has a better story to tell than ours?
On Inauguration Day I will be out of the country. Obviously, I didn’t vote for Mr. Obama nor am I particularly enthusiastic about what lies ahead with his administration. But I know I will still be proud to be an American come 12:01 PM EST and should anyone ask me then or thereafter, I will tell them that Mr. Obama is my president. I consider it my duty as an American, especially after reading about the poor representation we’ve had overseas for so many years.
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It was good to see so many flags being waved on the Mall today. Sad and distasteful that many of the folks holding them booed the outgoing president, but good to see them regardless.
Re. the anti-American spiel around the world--the supposed hatred of America by the Arab "street" and the Euro-elitists--I'll believe it when everyone and his cousin quit knocking down the doors trying to get into this country.
Re. the anti-American spiel around the world--the supposed hatred of America by the Arab "street" and the Euro-elitists--I'll believe it when everyone and his cousin quit knocking down the doors trying to get into this country.
Re. Poland, are you familiar with Stratfor? They're a web-based private intelligence service. I read a preview of an upcoming book called The Next 100 Years by their CEO, George Friedman. Interestingly, he is predicting that Poland and Turkey will emerge as political players by the middle of this century. I'll be interested to see what the reasoning behind that is.
Will - you're ahead of the game. National Review Online (see The Corner)has a podcast today with Friedman and mentions your point about Poland. Thanks
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