Thoughts on the Homeland

Sorry everyone, but I just have to get this out. I know you all know this already, but I just need to express it. Blame it on all the Coke I've been drinking (incidentally, if our nation had a flavor it would be fructose syrup and caffeinated soda water).

Has anyone else noticed how we aren't expected to like our own country anymore? Like the way everyone seems to reduce our country's worth to a string of corrupt/ineffectual politicians and bad reality shows? The constant reliving, re-regretting, and re-damning over old wars?

Little stuff, but constant. When I went to the U.K., everyone advised me and my fellow travelers to pretend to be Canadian for our own good. And we just accepted it; of course we shouldn't advertise where we're from. It's just not good manners, being American. I've noticed it in other American travelers; the automatic self-abasement, like mocking our country might keep other people from beating us to the punch. Not that I have a problem with the mocking; anyone who knows me should know that there is very little I will refuse to mock. It's the constant assumption that America is irredeemable that gets me--that even Americans would be stupid to be proud of their own country. Other countries have done horrible things and made huge comebacks and their citizens carry their heads high, but for some reason a lot of us don't; a lot of us repeatedly apologize for things that weren't even part of our lifetimes. It bothers me.

Today Mogi-san and I were having a relaxed chat about Japan's politics with a car dealership owner while he looked over my car, and I was overwhelmed with the familiarity of it all. Japan's laws and customs are so different from ours, and yet we all worry about the exact same things, in the exact same ways. Taxes. Our leaders. Health care. Education. I felt like I might have had the same conversation right at home in my living room. Mogi-san wasn't ashamed because Japan's prices are high or because it's difficult to make changes. Why should I be ashamed because America is that way?

I feel like we can (and will) build and re-build every time something goes wrong. It's what people do. It's what the Japanese do, and the Ecuadorians, and the French, and the Austrians. For all the cliches about the darkness in the human soul, it cannot be denied that the human soul also fosters a relentless drive towards happiness. Americans are no different. We can trust ourselves to move forward. We should.