Joined: Feb 04, 2006 Age: 26 Posts: 3854 Location: Central USA
Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2009 2:15 pm Post subject:
If this turns into a political flame war, I am going to virtually throw you all into the nearest lake to cool off...
I do like the USA. It's my home. I'm under no illusions that it's perfect; and in fact I think anyone who believes their country is perfect is not being a good citizen. The point of being a good citizen isn't that you think your country is wonderful and never does anything wrong, but that you are working to make your country better, to fix the bad parts and make the good parts even better. The nice part about living in a country where you have a lot of power as a citizen is that when you see your country messing up, you can often fix it.
Recently in our area, for example, they were going to cut funding to libraries--budgets are tight everywhere--and a whole bunch of us started writing letters and e-mails and calling every politician we could find; and since the citizens are the ones who vote for them, they had to listen... they made the budget cuts someplace else. The library workers are already underpaid and mostly part-time; and many of those kids who hang out in the library after school haven't got any place to go other than the streets, not to mention stuff like job searching for adults and general access to information... Libraries are important to the public, so the public made its opinion known and things got changed. "Good citizen" is somebody who speaks up and says something, not somebody who just sits there in denial and lets it happen because his country is obviously perfect. I know, it's a minor example. Bigger changes take longer. But this kind of stuff happens all the time. The solution isn't to move to Canada, in any case, unless you happen to like Canada. _________________ Engineering student. Gamer. Christian. Asexual. Information Addict. Deal with it!
Reports from a Resident Alien:
http://chaoticidealism.livejournal.com
If this turns into a political flame war, I am going to virtually throw you all into the nearest lake to cool off...
I do like the USA. It's my home. I'm under no illusions that it's perfect; and in fact I think anyone who believes their country is perfect is not being a good citizen. The point of being a good citizen isn't that you think your country is wonderful and never does anything wrong, but that you are working to make your country better, to fix the bad parts and make the good parts even better. The nice part about living in a country where you have a lot of power as a citizen is that when you see your country messing up, you can often fix it.
Recently in our area, for example, they were going to cut funding to libraries--budgets are tight everywhere--and a whole bunch of us started writing letters and e-mails and calling every politician we could find; and since the citizens are the ones who vote for them, they had to listen... they made the budget cuts someplace else. The library workers are already underpaid and mostly part-time; and many of those kids who hang out in the library after school haven't got any place to go other than the streets, not to mention stuff like job searching for adults and general access to information... Libraries are important to the public, so the public made its opinion known and things got changed. "Good citizen" is somebody who speaks up and says something, not somebody who just sits there in denial and lets it happen because his country is obviously perfect. I know, it's a minor example. Bigger changes take longer. But this kind of stuff happens all the time. The solution isn't to move to Canada, in any case, unless you happen to like Canada.
I agreed.
I still remain under-composed and still spreading the positive aspect of having Independence in America.
I hope Hashberry would understand that and put down any negative feeling toward US Military that is fighting for our country. There are good people in military and it is unfair for them to be lump together with other people.
Remember bad things can happen to good people!
Hashberry decided not to celebrate 4th July, that is his given freedom wish.
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