Let me get this out of the way:
I am not a Trump supporter.
I am a conservative.
I do not agree with a lot of things in the Republican party and therefore I don’t really identify myself as such even if my voters registration says that I am.
I believe that by registering as a republican, when I do vote against something they endorse, it makes more of a statement in my own personal opinion, than registering as independent would. Who notices this? Probably no one, but I still stand firm on that.
Now, with all that said, I want to talk about this statement going around that roughly comes out as:
When was America ever great?
When I hear that, I sort of choke on my own breath. I mean seriously? People who live here are saying that? I can only shake my head and wonder what they think next as they put away their fancy cell phones, get into their gasoline powered cars, head out to their stores and restaurants, drink lattes that cost as much as food for a month for someone in another country, and then settle into their comfy house for the night with running water, electricity, and oh… something called security enough to sleep without worrying about pretty much anything.
Now, I’m not dumb. I know that not EVERYONE enjoys those things, but I don’t think it’s baseless to make this correlation because the majority of people who do make that statement enjoy everything I’ve listed and more.
The first thing we must tackle is the actual definition of “great”.
Is greatness found in the morality of the people? In the resilience of the economy and the value of the currency? In the fruitfulness of it’s industries? In the ability to defend itself from attack? In the way it treats its citizens? In the structure and enforcement of its government and laws?
I would argue that the United States of America excels in numerous ways in all of those categories and more that I haven’t listed here.
Does greatness exclude mistakes, human nature and tragedy? No, but those types of things do not automatically disqualify that categorization.
So, in summary, my definition of greatness is a country that has a population that is moral, resilient, fruitful, secure, lawful, and peaceful… and our country has all of those things.
It’s not enough for me to simply define what I think it is and then say “I win!”.
I need to go a bit further.
I am going to take a more organized approach to state my opinion on this topic by listing the statements I hear to basically prove that our country was “never great”, and giving my rebuttal.
In no particular order:
Statement 1: This country was stolen from the Native Americans.
Do I deny that the settlers came here and basically said, “I like this place, I shall call it miiiiine. Move over native population, we have arrived!”
No, I don’t. They did come over here and did countless brutal and terrible acts to claim this land.
What I would like to say is… please name one country that wasn’t built on some sort of domination of the native population.
Anyone?
Bueller?
Has anyone studied the history of our planet? A vast portion of the things we learn about are people conquering people to take their stuff.
It’s what we do.
Are we at a place in civilization where that doesn’t happen as often? Thankfully yes, but it DOES still happen and to say “Oh this country was founded on murder and brutality” is like saying “This orange is orange like all the other oranges but it sucks because it’s a really big orange and I don’t really like this orange because I’m right next to this orange and this orange is the WORST.”
Seems ridiculous because it IS.
There is not a single square foot of this planet that is not stained and soaked with the blood of the people who were there first.
If you think there is, you are naive and perhaps need to read our planets history a little more closely.
Here’s a list of conquerors you might have heard of before**:
- *Napoleon Bonaparte
- *Attila the Hun
- *Alexander the Great
- *Charlemagne
- *Genghis Khan
- *Julius Caeser
Those are just a handful. Do a google search and take it in. This planet is bathed in blood and to sit here like a pouting brat and say that our country isn’t great because of how it came to be is juvenile. I personally would love for there to be a better way for things to have happened, but that is not in our nature.
Imagine it:
“Hello Natives, we love your land. May we share it with you?”
“Ummm, no, get out of here. This is our land!”
“Oh, ok, well maybe later. We’ll bring you a present next time.”
Please.
Get real.
The bigger dog wins. It’s just reality. When utopia happens, I hope you’re alive to see it, but it isn’t happening now so to say a country can only be great by some pureness of creation is ridiculous.
Does it make our country great that we did that? No, but what we have progressed to now, as I have stated before, gives us more than enough to claim that title. I do not believe that the sons should pay for the sins of their fathers. I just do not. I won’t digress further into that, but I felt like that needed to be said.
*The United States isn’t great because they built so much of this country on the backs of slaves and minorities.
Yes, yet another awful chapter in our history. Were atrocities committed on the backs of the unwilling to create a lot of what we enjoy today? You bet. I do not deny that there is some truly nasty and wretched periods in our countries past. They are not excusable, not even to say “Look at what we have because of that!”
I believe that the very same types of success that was enjoyed due to slave labor could have been accomplished without it and I wish that had been the case.
But once again, there are so many societies with that ugly practice in their records. Just look at the progress of civilization since then. Doesn’t anyone notice that what was once a common occurrence is now completely avoided? We have advanced and progressed. We have learned to recognize people as equals, and even though there is still a lot of ground to cover to truly have that be the case, we are far better people as a societal whole than we were 150 years ago, and isn’t that, in and of itself a greatness?
I believe so. ***
This leads me into the outrage I feel when I see segments of our population that think it is okay to burn a flag and to call our country terrible. How terrible can it be that you are doing something so disrespectful and still able to go home at night untouched? Think about it, and think about how that act is treated in other countries. Symbolism is very important to us as human beings and that is like spitting in the face of everyone who has died to allow you that home you enjoy so much. How disgusting. But, I digress.
*There is racism, sexism, discrimination of all kinds in our country! How can this country be great?
This makes me shake my head and sigh.
For me, this statement is like rolling in dirt and not washing it off and then looking in a mirror and saying “Wow, you’re dirty.”
These issues we have are more than just something a government can fix with some laws and regulations. This has to do with the hearts of people. These things just can’t be fixed with some words on paper and someone saying “Do this because we say so.”
Education, exposure, dialogue, FREE SPEECH, and the ability to challenge and change the status quo are the only things, I believe, can have any sort of real impact on the types of things like racism and discrimination. You can’t “government” away these types of things. The fact that there are SO MANY different cultures and lifestyles co existing in a country as large as ours without widespread violent insanity is one of the greatest accomplishments I can imagine.
Once again, I urge anyone who thinks differently to do a simple google search on countries that don’t allow freedom of religions, freedom of speech, freedom of sexual orientation, freedom of choice. THERE ARE SO MANY that deny things to their citizens. I mean, just look at the population control laws in some Asian countries and the tragedies that result. How in all of the world can someone say our country isn’t great or needs to become great when we have some of the most amazing freedoms to ever be offered to anyone? Even though I disagree with abortion outright, do you know there are countries where it is still illegal?
I mean, come on.Get your head out of the paper bag you’ve shoved it in and take a look around you. I bet if you took five minutes to take it in, you’d realize exactly what you have to feel great about.
*We have so much poverty. How can anything be great when we have starving children and families?!
This issue hits me in the gut. I feel like we waste SO MUCH and there are people who have SO LITTLE. I truly believe that there should be not a single starving family in this country. I’ve read article after article about the waste we close our eyes to in our food industry. Even as far as throwing away tons of fruits and vegetables because they don’t look the way we want them to. It is disgusting. I also believe that communities and local organizations should be a lot more accountable for feeding the people in need in their areas. Soup kitchens and food banks are one thing, but there is so much more that could be done. Nobody should be hungry.
With that said, I do not believe that people who need help are without options. Sometimes it’s a lot of work and red tape and back flips to get help, but it is there. There are quite a lot of people who DO benefit from the systems that in place to care for families and especially children. I do believe that if it was easier to understand there would not be a single child without. I have seen first hand how having a child can give you help when you truly need it. I am not sure how things work in other states and since I don’t have that knowledge I do have to classify my thoughts as being pretty limited on this subject. However, I do think our country really does try and while there is a lot of work to be done, the fact that they do try is a symbol of a greater sentiment of the people who live here. We don’t want our people in need to go without. I just think more people need to stop just giving lip service and actually do more, me included.
I’ve decided at this point to start concluding this post. I could probably write for pages and pages on all of the reasons I hear on why our country was never great and can’t be great.
The truth of the matter is, we have had a great country for a long long time. Granted, there are bloody truths to how we got here and we are still on the road to maintain and improve upon what we have built here, but it makes me feel rage to hear people say our country was never great. I feel even more rage at the statement “Make America Great Again”… because it NEVER STOPPED BEING SO.
If anyone can give me a country that is great (by the definition of those who make the statement that it never was), was great, or is close to being great… I’ll show you an empty space untouched by man… maybe on a distant planet. There will never be a place that makes everyone happy all of the time as long as there is a person living there. Accept that and then take a look around.
Our country is freaking awesome, with all the insanity and flaws and messes everywhere. Sure, we have a leadership right now that is highly questionable and more than a bit frustrating. But ya know what? People who don’t agree are doing what they think they need to do to see change. How terrible can a country be when THAT is how we can react and how we can hope to change things… by having our voices free to speak and our actions free to move towards things we think are right. Now some go a bit too far with violence and stupidity, but once again, that’s people for you!
My final statement is this…
America doesn’t need to be great again, it already is.
I love my country and I feel so blessed and happy to have been born and raised here. People are losing their minds at the prospect of not being able to come here. People are breaking the law to live here. People look at us with hate, fear, admiration, and respect because of what our country is.
If that doesn’t mean that America is already great, I think you should take another look.
** Names retrieved from doing a simple google search of “great conquerors in history”
***I know there is more to the topic of racism and our history with slavery and oppression than what I have here, but I need to post another blog on it because this could go on a tangent forever about the African American population of our country, including the fact that I am African American as well as Caucasian in my own racial make up and have a very personal way of looking at the whole argument of racism and privilege etc… but like I said, another blog!
