Cuz I like to start my morning with a giant cup of ARRRRRGH

[chaosblue]

So. I'm merrily surfing around, checking my email, when I see "Why Mommy is a Democrat - littledemocrats.net - If you don't tell your children why you're a Democrat, then who will?" in the Sponsored Links section. Now, maybe I'm just *looking* for a reason to be pissy, but

Comments

[bluehyacinth]

I guess I am going to approach your post in a completely different way.

At one point you write:
>Why do I not see things like "If you don't tell your children why you're an American, >then they'll never see any point in making it a better place"? "If you don't tell your >children why you're an American, why would they see any point in voting?"

Tell my (hypothetical/future) children why I'm an American?

Er, um, an accident of birth and inertia. Which is probably the same reason that they will be and will remain Americans. And which is also true for the majority of Americans, unless they are recent immigrants.

Which is not to say that I am not generally happy with being an American, but it has only a minimal amount to do with volition or action on my part. And choosing not to be an American would require more from me than continuing to be an American.

This all comes back to a linguistic pet peeve of mine. This being people claiming "pride" in attributes over which they have no active control. I can understand the impulse when people are trying to counter arguments that they should feel "shame" for the same attributes, though I think both pride and shame should not factor in to the involuntary.

That said, I am occasionally made proud or ashamed by the actions of my country and the values it espouses on both the national and international level. And I vote because I want make it a place that reflects the things I value. And I speak up because I want it to be a place of which I can be proud more often.

Anyway. Rant off.