Prideful Patriots

“I have no country to fight for; my country is the earth, and I am a citizen of the world.” ~ Eugene V. Debs

I’m not proud to be an American.

Someone else pointed out that it’s silly to feel proud of something over which you had no control and I agree. It was the luck of the draw that caused me to emerge from my momma at Motown’s Providence Hospital on the Ides of March back in 1962. I could have been born in Lima, São Paulo, Naples or New Delhi. I could be fighting right now to re-enter Gaza from Israel instead of fighting sleep as I type on my laptop in a mid-Michigan subdivision.

It wasn’t until I read Kenneth C. Davis’ Don't Know Much about History: Everything You Need to Know about American History But Never Learned back in the early 1990s that I first started to question why we salute the flag and remove our caps at the first bars of the “Star Spangled Banner.” (I never liked ritual anyway – my Catholic upbringing, with its genuflecting and making the sign of the cross when entering the pew and chanting the Lord’s Prayer and Hail Mary and Apostle’s Creed and mumbling “Amen” and “Peace be with you” in unison with the rest of the congregants, turned me against anything that felt cultish.)

Davis’ book, which spent 35 consecutive weeks on The New York Times bestseller list and sold a million and a half copies, opened my eyes to the blemishes on our record, the shameful facts that were glossed over or omitted in history class. With my new, broadened perspective, I made a conscious decision to pay less attention to borders drawn on maps by men and think of everyone as neighbors, if not friends, on Planet Earth.

I can’t remember if I also read Howard Zinn’s celebrated A People’s History of the United States but I found it online and have added it to my lengthy “Must Read Before My Children Have Drivers’ Licenses” list.

Speaking of lists, I ran across an interesting one online the other day. (I can’t credit the source or verify the information because I don’t remember where I found this.) Consider this:

• America has the highest incarceration rate and the largest total prison population in the entire world by a good margin.

• There are more car thefts in the United States than anywhere else in the world by far.

• Of all the major industrialized nations, America is the most obese. (Mexico is #2.)

• The average American drinks more than 600 sodas a year – the most in the world.

• U.S. corporations sell more fast food and more soda than anyone else in the world by a wide margin.

• Nobody watches more television per week – 28 hours – than Americans do (although the people of the United Kingdom are tied with us).

• The United States leads the world in credit card fraud.

• The United States has the highest percentage of one-person households on the planet.

• The United States has the highest divorce rate in the world by a good margin.

• The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the world by far.

• There are more school shootings in America than anywhere else in the world.

• The United States has the highest child abuse death rate in the world.

• There are more “deaths by reptile” in America than anywhere else in the world.

• The United States has the most lawyers per capita in the world.

• The United States produces more pornography than any other nation in the world.

• Americans take more prescription drugs than anyone else in the world.

• More is spent on prescription drug advertising in America than anywhere else in the world.

• The percentage of women taking antidepressants in America is higher than in any other country in the world.

• More people have been diagnosed with mental disorders in America than anywhere else on earth.

• The United States has the highest rate of illegal drug use in the world.

• There is more credit card debt in America than anywhere else in the world.

• There is more mortgage debt in America than anywhere else in the world.

• There is more student loan debt in America than anywhere else in the world.

• The United States spends more money on government schools than any other nation on earth.

• U.S. citizens spend more time in school than anyone else in the world.

• Nobody in the world gets more plastic surgery done than Americans do.

• The United States leads the world in eating disorder deaths.

• According to nationmaster.com, the United States has the most total reported crimes in the world by far.

• Nobody has more airport security thugs groping women and children than America does.

• The United States spends much more on health care as a percentage of GDP than any other nation on the face of the earth.

• The United States has the most complicated tax system on the planet.

• The United States has the most laws on the planet.

• The United States spends more on the military than the next 12 nations combined.

• The United States has the most foreign military bases in the world by far.

• The United States exports more arms to other countries than anyone else in the world.

• Americans spend more time sitting in traffic than anyone else in the world.

• Americans spend more money on elections than anyone else in the world by a very wide margin.

• Every year, the United States has the largest trade deficit in the world by far.

• The U.S. government wastes more money than any other government on earth.

• The United States has accumulated the biggest mountain of government debt in the history of the world.

I’m not crazy about this list. (I’m not sure what the compiler means by “government schools,” for example, or how “waste” is defined.) But the fact that even some of these claims might be true makes me ashamed, not boastful, that America is Number One.

There are reasons why I love this country. Its physical beauty is breathtaking, from the Grand Canyon and the Great Lakes to picturesque neighborhoods and unnamed forests and fields. Some of the Americans I’ve met, know or have read about are fantastic, charming, amazing and unforgettable.

We’ve contributed great things to the world and I’m glad I live here, in this day and age, as opposed to, say, when Herbert Hoover was president and a million families lost their farms in the Great Depression. I’m glad I didn’t reside in Western Europe during the 12th Century or Germany during World War II. I’m thankful that I’m not struggling in Moscow, Havana or the favelas of Brazil.

I’m pleased to be American but I’m not proud.


“Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.” ~ Howard Zinn

“Can anything be stupider than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have not quarreled with him?” ~ Blaise Pascal

“Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism - how passionately I hate them!” ~ Albert Einstein

“Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” ~ Samuel Johnson

“It is lamentable that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.” ~ Voltaire

“No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.” ~ Barbara Ehrenreich