Proud to be… Wait a minute

On my Facebook page the other day I came across a statement written by a friend, it read, “America bites” and that and they would rather be somewhere else. Other people agreed with her. Later, I read a letter in another newspaper where someone called this country barbaric. Now at first you may say, “Fine you don’t want be here, leave.” I’d say the same thing, but I totally understand where these people are coming from.

Lately this hasn’t seemed like America. It’s been more like this racist, paranoid, society. Its intolerance of others rights or civil liberties are more than a little insane. I understand illegal immigration is a problem, but can’t we find a rational way to solve it other than to trample on peoples rights.

Then there’s the whole gay marriage thing. OK I get it, most people are used to the whole man, woman, thing. So does that mean that people can’t choose to love whomever they want to because you don’t agree with it?

Then there is this whole ground zero mosque thing. First of all lets be frank, the mosque is not on Ground Zero, it’s actually two blocks away. So it’s not actually the “ground zero mosque.” That being said, I don’t necessarily agree with the Mosque being built two blocks from where the towers went down. Why? It’s still too soon. 9/11 was only 9 years ago, it’s still fresh in the minds of many, including the families of the victims.

However, I understand that the Mosque is not a reason to demonize an entire religion or an entire race, which is exactly what’s happening. As always the usual suspects are stoking the flames of racial hatred and we Americans are feeding into it, and things are just getting worse with radio commentators saying the N word on air and then claiming it’s their first amendment right. When it was written I don’t think the founding fathers had hate speech in mind. Just because it’s free speech doesn’t make it OK. When Bush left office America was supposed to change for the
better, it hasn’t.

Which brings me to my final point. All this racial intolerance points to the fact that some bigots are still unwilling to accept the fact that the leader of the free world is Black. Am I proud to be an American? Sure, Just not right now.