“Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too.” - Voltaire, Essay on Tolerance
I am not Joe the Plumber or Joe Six-Pack. I am not a hockey mom or a Wal-Mart mom or any kind of mom. I rarely even wear lipstick…as a pig or a pitbull. I wasn’t raised in a small-town where they grow the good folks and I don’t live in a small town now.
But, I am a real American. I love America and I am proud to be an American….sometimes in sappy overly emotional ways. I’ve gotten teary hearing the national anthem or America the beautiful. I’ve cried for our soldiers and prayed for their safe return. I’ve taken enormous pride in our country when we step up and give in unprecedented and unequaled amounts to victims of tragedy, when we stand together in the face of adversity and reach out to help each other. Rarely have I been more proud than when we have stood together against hateful politics and policies and tried to make the world a more decent place. America has done all of that.
But, being a real American does not mean that I must blindly accept everything that America chooses to do as right. It does not mean I cannot give voice to criticisms I may have of the country or the government. Being proud of America does not mean I am proud of everything America has done. That I am not blind to America’s flaws does not mean I am not a real American. That I hope and strive for more and better from America does not mean I am not a proud American.
I am not always proud of America. I am not proud that we fractionalized blacks in our Constitution. I am not proud that we enslaved people. I am not proud that we interred anyone who was 1/16 Japanese in WW II. I am not proud that women were chattel, with few if any rights. I am not proud of Jim Crow laws and the KKK. I am not proud that in the face of what the Nazis were doing in Europe, we imposed a refugee quota and in 1939 refused entry of 20,000 children under the age of 14. I am not proud of the actions of the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities or McArthyism or blacklists. I am not proud that our government, could or did not respond appropriately to give help to hurricane victims in desperate straits. I am not proud that we still concern ourselves with whether a presidential candidate is Catholic, or Mormon or Muslim. I am not proud that we started a war with a country with little or no justification.
But, I am enormously and overwhelmingly proud that we have changed and are capable of change. That as individuals and as a nation, we have been willing and able to challenge perceived wrongs and seek to redress them. Both the willingness and the ability to challenge America do not make me less American. They make me more American….quintessentially American.
The suggestion by some Republicans that my willingness to question America, to seek better from America, is somehow un-American is offensive. As is the suggestion that as a liberal I hate America and that as a person born and raised in a city, rather than a small town, I am not a real American.
This weekend, Sarah Palin claimed,
If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations, then I don’t know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media.”
The First Amendment is not designed to protect politicians or the government from attacks from the media. Precisely the opposite in fact. The First Amendment is designed to protect the media and citizens, to enable them to discuss and disagree with the government and politicians. To challenge them both. The First Amendment is an expression of our
profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open, and that it may well include vehement, caustic and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials.” New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 270 (1964).
The future of the First Amendment is not weakened by those challenges to and criticisms of our politicians, it is strengthened. The future strength of the First Amendment is challenged by politicians claiming citizens who speak out are in some way un-American.
It is quintessentially, proudly and really American for a citizen to speak against her government and politicians when she believes they are wrong. As abolitionists did. As suffragettes did. As civil rights leaders and war demonstrators do. As religious leaders do. As Mavericks do. As real and proud Americans do.
Amazingly profound and exactly what I’ve always wanted to portray to objections to change and claims of unpatriotic beliefs for voicing concern in goverment activity. I 100% second this entire entry and hope that my voice cand say it as strongly as yours does.
Well said!
I agree and disagree. I agree with your disagreement about Sarah Palin and her interpretation of the first amendment. However, I wish you where fair and brought up the issue of Joe the Plumber and after he came out and asked Obama a simple question about how he would tax small businesses, Joe the Plumber was intensely investigated by the democratic party. The democratic party found out some dirt on Joe the Plumber and proceeded to make it public. Where is the first amendment to protect Joe? To me this should also be mentioned in your rant of something you are not proud of. There is a huge wrong in doing so to a civilian, and quite frankly and sadly, I can’t say that this action surprised me.
Jesus, Joe, read the Constitution. The first Amendment doesn’t have anything to do with protecting private citizens from political parties from “finding dirt” on them.
It’s not hard to understand. The first Amendment protects free speech, a free press, free expression, freedom of assembly and freedom of religion. That’s it. No one stopped “Joe the Plumber” from any of that–dude still won’t stop talking. No matter how retarded what he says is, no one is stopping him from spouting nonsense.
Kim,
Truth in politics is like creamer in coffee. I think what Palin may have been alluding to was a sort of circular hypocracy we have seen with much frequency this electoral cycle:
“Journalists” may assert, accuse and allude. You may confess or deny but may not question the source.
You may not bring up one candidate’s personal & political associations but you may rifle through the other’s 30-year-old divorce details;
You may not call the potential First Lady of the United States’ conspicuous lack of national pride into commentary but you may use government-owned computers to delve into the personal business of a citizen who dares to speak in controversion to the “chosen” candidate in a public forum.
When traditionally and supposedly still “unbiased” elements of news media conduct counter attacks on any particular candidate as willing agents of the opposition and not in the interest of the truth, it deserves notice. Just because you have a TV camera or a word processor and access to airtime or column space doesn’t grant you impunity from criticism nor do those things give you the right to yell “fire” in a crowded theater.
Whether the media is or is not biased, people in interaction with persons active in those media have the right to counter. At least conservatives are not advocating the outright silencing of opposing voices by laying wast to the first amendment via “Fairness” doctrines, as are counterparts on the left.
I fear for the economic future of this country in either party’s hands this election; but only with one ticket do I fear for the future of our freedoms. Executive, Judicial and Legislative. All three on one side of the fence with no meaningful opposition is a recipe for one thing in, as Joe Biden might say, two words: Complete Government Control.
Kelly,
Beautifully written. You have said what so many of us are and have been thinking. Thank you for saying it so well.
Rats.
Kelly, not Kim. My bad.
*** The democratic party found out some dirt on Joe the Plumber and proceeded to make it public. Where is the first amendment to protect Joe? To me this should also be mentioned in your rant of something you are not proud of. ***
First of all, it was the press, not the Democratic (which is capitalized, by the way) Party.
Joe the tax-dodging unlicensed plumber knew exactly what he was doing. He carefully constructed a complete lie and milked it for all it was worth, going on right-wing talk shows. So his lie was exposed. Big deal.
Screw him.
Kelly,
Nice posting. Quite evenly-keeled, and makes a good case for striving to do better.
-mike