Is America Losing Its Patriotism
I can’t help but notice that more and more often I am noticing these little subtle signs that much of America is losing its old fashioned patriotic values. I remember when I was a kid, my family owned some record albums that were all patriotic songs. We used to listen to them when we were sitting around the living room on a Saturday afternoon. I know. It sounds a little weird, but we actually did that. These albums had songs on them like America The Beautiful, God Bless America and My Country Tis Of Thee.
A good portion of my father’s generation were ex-military guys. Maybe that’s why we were like that. Regardless though, I always grew up proud of my country and truly grateful for all those un-named dead American soldiers who fought and died so that we can sit around and bitch about less important things like politics.
This topic entered my mind this morning when I was watching Squawk Box on CNBC. The thing that triggered it was a commercial by Bank of America. I am not going to nitpick the details of the commercial. My main beef with the commercial is that it emphasizes the notion that the United States is a nation of immigrants. That in and of itself is not a big deal for me because of course our ancestors here were all immigrants at one time. Of course you could say that about any developed country on the face of this earth.
I want to know at what point does this nation quit claiming to be a nation of immigrants and start becoming a nation of Americans. See that is my beef. I feel very strongly that this is a nation of Americans, not immigrants. I think that people need to quit focusing on this paradigm of this country somehow being a country of the world. I don’t want to live in a country of the world. I want to live in a country of Americans. I want to live in a country where people talk about how great it is to live here, not how great other parts of the world are.
I want to allow immigrants into this country who want to become Americans in every way shape and form. I do not want to let people come here just to find a job. If you don’t want to become an American then get the hell out. Being a citizen of our nation is and should remain a privilege not a right. It is time we reminded people who want to migrate here about that.
As much as I like Europeans and their rich history, I still do not want to become one. I feel very strongly that it is in fact happening right before our eyes. Instead of forming our own opinions and leading the rest of the world, we are letting other people’s and other countries’ opinions shape what we do. This, in my opinion, is as bad as ideas get.
It seems like our very identity as proud Americans is being slowly melted away. We are assuming an identity as people of the world. I for one don’t want to become a citizen of the world. I am proud of my country, its heritage and the sacrifices that generations before us have made so that we can call ourselves Americans. Let’s not lose that identity. That identity is what makes this nation great.