Land of the free and home of the brave?

[jianantonic]

I've all but said this right out before. I've tried to hold back from saying this by reminding myself that I really am lucky to be where I am...but I have to say it.

I hate my country. I hate the United States of America. I am ashamed of my citizenship.

Before all you flagwavers out there start telling me to pack up and leave, let me make one thing clear. I would rather live somewhere else, and I probably will for most of the rest of my life, but for now my options are limited. So call me a hypocrite or whatever but I live here, I vote, I pay taxes, and as long as I have that First Amendment right, I'm allowed to hate the place and stay here.

Here are some things that make me feel this way.

Some might say that I am lucky because of all the rights I have - like the right to vote. Well, yeah, but the last presidential election showed me that it doesn't take much to fuck with the voting process. I appreciate the fact that I have the right to vote, but I don't appreciate the fact that our president is president only because his beloved brother illegally added names of tens of thousands of democrats in Florida to the supposed convicted felons list and kept them from voting. The pregnant chads and hanging chads covered this little tidbit of information nicely - but it happened, and yet most of America cluelessly supports our criminal president.

And what of all my other freedoms? Well the Patriot Act just about nullifies any and all of the Constitution that grants me these rights. In fact, simply because I am posting this commentary, I'm probably being screened by the FBI. Even if I didn't do anything close to this "rebellious," they could still have me detained for no reason because the terrorist attacks of 2001 scared Americans into giving up their rights for the greater good. Anyone ever heard of "Seize the day," or "Live life to the fullest?" There is no way we can safeguard ourselves against these attacks 100% (by the way, many Al Qaida were trained and supplied with weapons by the US), so I'd prefer to go on living life as normally as possible. I'll bet most of the people who died on 9/11 would rest more peacefully if their deaths weren't used as justification for the deaths of so many others. And don't tell me I'd feel differently if it touched me personally. One of my caddy friends was killed that day. His name was Doug, and I felt awful when I found out...but I think that the best way to prevent future horrors such as 9/11 is not to retaliate with guns (and stupid bumper stickers), but to promote education, understanding, and acceptance of other cultures. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I think that if the United States would get off its fucking high horse of democracy and back the fuck out of all those other countries' business, maybe we'd be a less hated nation. Some places just aren't suited for democracy, and maybe they never will be. And what does the US know of democracy anyway? If we were a true democracy, Al Gore would be president. I'm not bitter. Dean 2004 (he'll be better than Gore anyway...then Clinton 2012!)

In 2000, I spent part of the summer in Guatemala. Here's a nation where the poverty is boundless. The poorest American could live like a nobleman here. And yet, the Guatemalans are rich. They love each other, they say hi to strangers on the street and smile at everyone. They have love in their hearts and hope in their souls. Contrast that with what we call a "rich" American. I quote Phil Stone when I say,
"What kind of world is it when an Enron executive, who has more money than he could ever possibly spend in his lifetime, would stoop to such criminal levels only to get more of it?" Is that really what it means to be rich? To posess money and things? Are these things good for anything really besides shielding us from the emptiness of our souls?

The list goes on and I could complain a lot more, but I think the people that disagree with me have already stopped reading and those that agree have heard it all before.

I'll end with this note to the FBI, CIA, and Georgie:
I'm not going to blow you up or come after you or even wish this happens. I like most of the people in the states, just not the way our country is running. I don't want to see ANYONE get hurt. An Iraqi life is worth no less to me than an American one - even if that Iraqi hates me. I can understand where the idea comes from, eh? I don't exactly feel all that nurtured by my own country, either.

Peace.
Please, one day, let there be peace.

Comments

[mp0llard.livejournal.com]

I hate my country. I hate the United States of America. I am ashamed of my citizenship.

in some nations, this would get you ...well, killed. or incarcerated. for treason. or for affrontment to the government.

you certainly do take your liberties for granted, while simultaneously disrespecting every man and woman who has fought and even given their life to protect them. i say: if you don't like it, leave. other countries would certainly welcome your citizenship. if your discontent with the country was as strong as you make it out to be, would the minor hassle of relocating prevent you from securing your beliefs?

one thing that bothers me just as much as fervent, blind patriotism, is fervent, blind anti-patriotism. you enjoy your public transportation, your publicly available information and education, your law enforcement, your national bank system, your regulated electricity and water... and multitudes of other things. you pay taxes, and a fundamental pillar of liberalism is believing that this is a "necessary evil" to maintain these things for all, isn't it? it's certainly vicious to condemn the united states as a whole when you partake of these things so readily.

one thing people often forget is that history is comprised of things that are positive as well as negative. why is it so simple to fall to an extreme and criticize the whole?

isn't liberalism based on viewing things in a case-by-case basis, instead of utilizing sweeping generalizations?

...by the way, many Al Qaida were trained and supplied with weapons by the US...

...except that they weren't the al qaida at that point! they were a rebel faction and essentially the "lesser of two evils" in terms of our involvement. everyone makes mistakes, and to fustigate people [essentially, because they are government--clearly, when you're government, you do not have the propensity to make a mistake.] when there's really no way to prove they knew otherwise is ridiculous. and the al qaida was not in any way, shape, or form a direct threat to our nation at that point. as far as i know, it wasn't even a cohesive organization until after the soviet-afghanistan war concluded. training and weapons were provided to the isi in order to fight the soviet red army, not abet terrorism... you use this "fact" so loosely and vaguely that it seems you believe it's a significant strike against our government. hindsight is certainly 20/20; how are we supposed to know that we might've lent a hand in creating a monster? shouldn't that just make us more dedicated to combating it? maybe we're not doing so the "right way," but hey.

i don't condone mindless patriotism, and similarly, i do not condone the opposite.

[mp0llard.livejournal.com]

and by the way, the whole thing that sort of tipped me off into making this response was the "Before all you flagwavers out there start telling me to pack up and leave, let me make one thing clear." that kind of got to me personally, because i'm no flagwaver. i also disagree with you on many counts, but i didn't stop reading when you figured i would, either. just as you feel strongly, i feel strongly.

[jianantonic.livejournal.com]

Hey Matt. Didn't mean to piss you off so much, but I'm not budging. I don't disrespect those that have fought to protect my liberties, nor do I take my liberties for granted. The thing is, the military doesn't train people to die, it trains them to kill - to take away the most imortant and basic human liberty of all - life. I am a pacifist, 100%. I think that all war is avoidable - even when four giant planes are crashed on our territory. Does this mean I think there should be no military? Well, yes and no. I am not stupid. I know that without defense, we'd get clobbered...but how about if we just work a lot harder on making the rest of the world not hate us? Educate the people. Instead of encouraging our citizens to go shoot up the rest of the world (Bush has essentially started two separate wars that have no real way of ending...what will be the point at which we can pack up and leave? Do you see that there really isn't one?)

It would be more than a minor inconvenience for me to leave right now. My family is here, and I love them. My friends are mostly here, and I love them. My mountains and my rivers are here, and I could never leave them permanently. And if I left, the terrors committed by Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld, etc. would continue. If ignoring it would make it go away, I'd leave and forget it...but if all the opposition is gone, then who remains to stop the US from becoming even more tyrannical? I am ashamed of my government and all the people that blindly support it - the people who went out on September 12, 2001, and bought out their local craft stores of red, white, and blue, only to throw up an American Flag without even thinking for one second why these things happened. What could've provoked such strong sentiment against the US that four or eight or however many men there were on the planes would plan for a year how they were going to hurt us, while also killing themselves?

While I appreciate my regulated food, water, electricity, education, and other priveleges granted by government, I cannot wave the flag in support of a government that also kills millions of people - supposedly to protect these great freedoms, when what it really does is take funding away from all the parts of the government I actually do like and put it into making guns and killing people.

The Al-Qaeda may not have been so-named when under American instruction (I don't know one way or the other), but they were still terrorists, doing the same thing on Afghani soil as now. At the time, they were not so much the lesser of two evils, but they were the evil that would support the US government against Russia and in other wars. This is not an issue of human rights, no matter what the president says.

I am not a blind anti-patriot. I vote, I research, and I exercise my right to speak out against my government. It has taken a lot of thinking and study for me to reach my conclusions. I don't think the US is permanently doomed to suck, but I don't think that the US in its current state is anything to be proud of.

I still don't think that it is disrespectful to oppose the army. I don't think the men in the military are bad people, but I think they are part of an institution that trains killers, (once again not diers), among other things, granted, but which is bad. But think how disrespectful it is to all those that have fallen helplessly under the American sword simply because they were in the wrong place (more civilians than soldiers have died each time the US has gone to war with Iraq)? An American life is worth no more than any other life on this planet, so why wave flags at all?

continued...

[jianantonic.livejournal.com]

whoops...I wrote this in a hurry and noticed some incomplete sentences.
First paragraph: Instead of training Americans to go shoot up...
...train them to be colorblind, to be respectful of cultural differences, to understand cultural differences, to use war as a last resort.

Last paragraph: But think how disrespectful...
...to wave American flags in the name of what's been done to them?

[jianantonic.livejournal.com]

Maybe by saying all this, Matt, I've made you hate me, or maybe you just think I'm horribly wrong. My hope is that even if you still disagree with me, you see my point, that I have reasons that mean enough to me to validate my thought. I also hope that you will not dislike me for what I have said, because hopefully you know that I am not a bad person and my intentions are peaceful rather than to stir up trouble. I respect your right to continue disagreeing with me, and I thank you for reading what I have to say about it. I'm sorry if I personally insulted you with what I said, because the point is to make people think, not insult them. I will thank you in the future not to insult me by calling me a blind anti-patriot, because I think you can see that I a) have thought out my points long and hard and b) don't hate America, just its current leadership and a lot of its history - but I don't think these things have to be permanent, and I hope they're not. That's basically my point. Things need to change.

Peace.

[mp0llard.livejournal.com]

"Maybe by saying all this, Matt, I've made you hate me, or maybe you just think I'm horribly wrong."

i can't hate anyone simply because of their point of view--on the same token, i can't throw them in a category simply because they see things differently. it certainly makes more sense now that you specify and go into the details, but in refining what you said, you changed your stances.

in your entry, you went to quite a length to secure all of your points as if everyone either a) knew them already or b) disagreed. there doesn't seem to be room for middle-ground. the way i read it, your position is that if someone disagrees with you, they are an ignorant flagwaver. you said you'd move, and will most definitely move, but ...it's simply not practical. i wasn't even really pissed off, just taken aback that you could be so self-righteous in your opinions to classify those who don't find exactly what you are saying to ring true. your preface was sort of a disclaimer that any sort of refute offered to your hatred was not valid. obviously, i don't agree with you on some things, and obviously, i am not someone you would find with a flag magnet on his car and a "GOD BLESS AMERICA" bumper sticker.

"I will thank you in the future not to insult me by calling me a blind anti-patriot..."

this was not intended to be an insult in the least. however, from what i read in your entry, you didn't really leave any elbowroom for any other sort of observations. what you said definitely did make me think. your response to me here says...

"...b) [I] don't hate America..."

but the problem is, you said the exact opposite in the fourth sentence of your entry. why would you say that if you meant otherwise? it seemed sensationalistic, is all.

i think it's fine to question and be skeptical of the administration. i really think it's healthy and it's the right thing to do in a government that is meant to be run essentially by the people. i can't personally hate elements of our history, but just come to terms with the fact that they are history and we can change now.

believe me: all i want is peace as well. things do need to change. but your entry was kicked off with the word "hate" and seemed rather nihilistic. i don't doubt that you have your viewpoints well thought-out, but the way you asserted them sort of preemptively put down the validity of anyone's opinion.

[jianantonic.livejournal.com]

When I wrote my first entry, I was really angry. I had just heard Bush's address, which elicited some nasty emotions. I agree that to start off with a statement of hatred isn't the best approach. A better term would be frustrated...it just doesn't seem to encompass how completely dissatisfied I am with all that has happened in the last two years. I have written a lot...novels' worth, on these issues, so this is just kind of one in the series. To go back and clarify everything I said would be repetitive, when most of those reading it have heard it before. I think in my original entry, after stating that I hated America or my country or whatever terminology I used, I went on to clarify that that does not mean I hate American people or all American institutions...I hope that was clear from the start.

As far as middle ground...there is certainly middle ground. My rage was directed primarily at those who are in direct opposition of me - the blind Bushites. I have extremely radical opinions, which I recognize, so I know that most people stand somewhere between me and the radical right who I see in charge of our government and military, for the most part. When I made the distinction of people who agree with me, I meant the people who read my journal regularly and are already quite familiar with my stance...Camm, Emily, my boyfriend...and people who disagree was meant to mean those at whom I was directing my gripes. Better now? I was just kinda rushing through it all before.

I don't generally consider myself in disagreement with anyone who stands in opposition to Bush, though certainly I don't expect to share the same convictions most of the time. When I go on these tirades, I'm not meaning to piss anyone off...if you get pissed off, you're not thinking about what I'm saying, and if what I do is piss people off rather than make them think, then it's not worth it to record my opinions. That's one of my many points, I suppose. So I guess we're all cleared up now, no feelings hurt, I hope? I understand your original gripe and hope you've come to a better understanding of my stance, whether you agree or not.
Peace.

[mp0llard.livejournal.com]