"Fair weather Americans"
A relative of mine updated her Facebook status last night to read: S.G. "cannot describe how disappoint[sic] she is in people who 'are proud to be an American now that Obama is president'. Fair weather Americans..." I'm sorry, I can't just let that pass without comment.
Let me be clear: I'm happy to be a citizen of the United States. It's a good country, with good people, and I appreciate the opportunities living here offers. While it's not a word I like to use out-of-hand, I suppose I do indeed even love my country. But have I been proud to be an American these last few years? No.
We have always been a strong nation, but lately that strength has been showing itself in unflattering ways. Rather than the charismatic, measured inner strength of an inspiring leader - a Roosevelt or Churchill or Rev. Dr. King - we as a nation have been displaying the pushy, violent strength of a schoolyard bully - a Khrushchev or Capone or Jack Bauer.
We have been a strong nation, but in some important ways I believe we have ceased to be an inspiring one. In the past years we have hastily invaded two formerly-sovereign nations, the second one over the objections of our allies. We have allowed our executive to guide our country all-but-unilaterally, despite a constitution designed specifically to limit that power. We have been told that diversity is dangerous, that dissension is tantamount to treason, that those who are not with us are against us, and, because we are afraid, we have begun to believe it. We have spied broadly on our own countrymen in the name of national security, declared war on a tactic rather than on the underlying causes, and pointedly ignored or even mocked the growing reluctance of the rest of the world to join in our cause. We have tortured our prisoners.
Now maybe - maybe - some of these actions were truly necessary or the consequences would have been even worse. I'm not so naive as to think that we can get by without the occasional Jack Bauer moment - the world is a harsh place, and sometimes harsh actions are unavoidable. But violence, both personal and national, should be a choice of last resort once all other avenues have been explored and exhausted. The path of forceful expediency should be taken reluctantly and only in the direst need. Allowing ourselves to become a nation of Jack Bauers, then, is something to be deeply ashamed of, not something to be proud of.
* * *
So am I suddenly proud to be an American now that we have chosen an apparently-different sort of leader. A little bit. But voting for change is the easy part - it's actually changing that's hard.
Still, we did vote for change, and in his first days in office President Obama has ordered the closure (with due time and consideration) of our most infamous offshore detention center, revised our policy on "harsh interrogation methods", and opened the government up to greater scrutiny by ordering agencies to stop searching for reasons to deny FOIA requests. It's a good start, and it gives me some hope that we may be ready to start embracing again some of the qualities that make us an inspiring nation and not just a strong one - personal liberty, glorious diversity, and a reluctance to enter into a conflict without an iron-clad justification.
In short, I believe that, as a wise old monkey once said, "[We] are more than what [we] have become," but that maybe we're starting to realize it. If that makes me a "fair weather American" then so be it.
--SMQ
Let me be clear: I'm happy to be a citizen of the United States. It's a good country, with good people, and I appreciate the opportunities living here offers. While it's not a word I like to use out-of-hand, I suppose I do indeed even love my country. But have I been proud to be an American these last few years? No.
We have always been a strong nation, but lately that strength has been showing itself in unflattering ways. Rather than the charismatic, measured inner strength of an inspiring leader - a Roosevelt or Churchill or Rev. Dr. King - we as a nation have been displaying the pushy, violent strength of a schoolyard bully - a Khrushchev or Capone or Jack Bauer.
We have been a strong nation, but in some important ways I believe we have ceased to be an inspiring one. In the past years we have hastily invaded two formerly-sovereign nations, the second one over the objections of our allies. We have allowed our executive to guide our country all-but-unilaterally, despite a constitution designed specifically to limit that power. We have been told that diversity is dangerous, that dissension is tantamount to treason, that those who are not with us are against us, and, because we are afraid, we have begun to believe it. We have spied broadly on our own countrymen in the name of national security, declared war on a tactic rather than on the underlying causes, and pointedly ignored or even mocked the growing reluctance of the rest of the world to join in our cause. We have tortured our prisoners.
Now maybe - maybe - some of these actions were truly necessary or the consequences would have been even worse. I'm not so naive as to think that we can get by without the occasional Jack Bauer moment - the world is a harsh place, and sometimes harsh actions are unavoidable. But violence, both personal and national, should be a choice of last resort once all other avenues have been explored and exhausted. The path of forceful expediency should be taken reluctantly and only in the direst need. Allowing ourselves to become a nation of Jack Bauers, then, is something to be deeply ashamed of, not something to be proud of.
* * *
So am I suddenly proud to be an American now that we have chosen an apparently-different sort of leader. A little bit. But voting for change is the easy part - it's actually changing that's hard.
Still, we did vote for change, and in his first days in office President Obama has ordered the closure (with due time and consideration) of our most infamous offshore detention center, revised our policy on "harsh interrogation methods", and opened the government up to greater scrutiny by ordering agencies to stop searching for reasons to deny FOIA requests. It's a good start, and it gives me some hope that we may be ready to start embracing again some of the qualities that make us an inspiring nation and not just a strong one - personal liberty, glorious diversity, and a reluctance to enter into a conflict without an iron-clad justification.
In short, I believe that, as a wise old monkey once said, "[We] are more than what [we] have become," but that maybe we're starting to realize it. If that makes me a "fair weather American" then so be it.
--SMQ