Ten Little Chances to be Free (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tenlittlebullets) wrote2004-03-31 07:50 pm
tenlittlebullets) wrote2004-03-31 07:50 pm
(no subject)
I have the most bullshit assignment ever from Gov class--a page and a half essay on why America is so great that 600,000 people would die defending it in the past century. Even though, you know, it has nothing whatsoever to do with economics--our current unit--and the few soldiers who actually died with the intent of defending America (as opposed to, say, being drafted or fighting for the guy next to them in the foxhole) did it for the same reason other people die to defend their countries. I know he's expecting two pages of propagandist drivel on why America is teh bestest country out there, but to be perfectly frank Mr. E, we're all far too cynical to buy into that crap.
The problem? It's worth 50 points, possibly more. *growl*
Here's what I think: I think that flag-waving is bullshit, and that just because American nationalism is focused around an ideal instead of an ethnicity doesn't mean it's not nationalism. I think the Founding Fathers were very brilliant, revolutionary men, and in 1776 there's no other place I'd rather have lived than right here. But America no longer has the sole claim on freedom and democracy, and is so caught up in we-were-the-first still that we've let our precious freedoms slide and allowed our government to get more restrictive.
I believe that people love America because the government cannot pass a law that allows secret searches, or people to be held without trial or lawyer. Because our Constitution is a special, almost sacred document that could never be amended to limit our rights or legislate morality. Because we would never lock up one of our own ethnic minorities in internment camps in the name of fighting oppressive racist regimes, or curb freedom of speech in time of war against a totalitarian empire. That is America to me--which means I should probably move out to Canada soon, eh? Just because we invented democracy as it's known today doesn't mean we perfected it.
Okay, rant over. I still have no idea what to write for the damn essay.
The problem? It's worth 50 points, possibly more. *growl*
Here's what I think: I think that flag-waving is bullshit, and that just because American nationalism is focused around an ideal instead of an ethnicity doesn't mean it's not nationalism. I think the Founding Fathers were very brilliant, revolutionary men, and in 1776 there's no other place I'd rather have lived than right here. But America no longer has the sole claim on freedom and democracy, and is so caught up in we-were-the-first still that we've let our precious freedoms slide and allowed our government to get more restrictive.
I believe that people love America because the government cannot pass a law that allows secret searches, or people to be held without trial or lawyer. Because our Constitution is a special, almost sacred document that could never be amended to limit our rights or legislate morality. Because we would never lock up one of our own ethnic minorities in internment camps in the name of fighting oppressive racist regimes, or curb freedom of speech in time of war against a totalitarian empire. That is America to me--which means I should probably move out to Canada soon, eh? Just because we invented democracy as it's known today doesn't mean we perfected it.
Okay, rant over. I still have no idea what to write for the damn essay.