Comments on: America? Not so bad, maybe

by: G.D. Gearino - Words Assembled Well - Raleigh, NC » Blog Archive » Obama (finally) says the right thing

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 19:24:23 +0000

[...] Here’s part of a message I sent to my friend, who had taken issue with this column I’d posted in which I declared that Obama and his wife, Michelle — who’d said that she felt proud of her country for the “first time” only recently — were causing people like me to wonder how much they actually liked the United States: I don’t define patriotism as automatically thinking your country is always right. To me, it’s recognizing that for all its (mostly correctable) flaws, your country still stands as mankind’s greatest experiment in freedom and self-rule. The Obamas, whether they mean to or not, have people wondering if they believe that. Their attachment to the U.S. comes across as conditional … as if the country still has something to prove to them. [...]

by: John

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:37:37 +0000

I see Ms Obama’s statement as matter-of-fact, plain speaking; no more, no less. As we all know, there’s no place for talk like that during a presidential campaign. Obfuscate, flatter, patronize, condescend, but NEVER say what you really think (or feel) unless truth and expedience happen to align like Jupiter and Mars. Oh yeah, the moon has to be in The Seventh House too - whatever the hell that means.

I’m an old white dude, and I cringe when those of my persuasion endeavor to speak for black folks and/or the balck experience. I don’t pack the credentials. Having offered that disclaimer, however, allow me to speculate on where Ms Obama was coming from.

It’s probably not Webster’s definition, but I see the emotion of pride as one born of inclusion. You’re proud of your kid for acing his SAT’s or serving his country in the military. You’re proud of your alma mater’s successes.

However, the acheivements of your neighbor’s kid or the net worth of your wife’s ex husband may make you (choose one):
A. gloat
B. gnash your teeth
C. nod in grudging admiration.
D. all of the above

You’ll notice that “swell with pride” ain’t among the choices.

I’m not responsible for the sins of my grandfather, but colelctively speaking, it hasn’t been that long ago (perhaps during Ms Obama’s lifetime even) that black folks were treated as second-class cititzens in this country. I won’t belabor the point further.

To me, it’s human nature. If you’re scorned, shunned and made to feel as an outsider, how much affection and pride should you feel for the entity that treats you so?

And does anybody else think that all this hooha about Obama’s heritage coulda been avoided if he tweaked his last name ever-so-slightly from Obama to O’Bama?

Still gotta do some work on Hussein though. That’s gonna be a tough nut to crack.

by: Jim

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 00:56:57 +0000

Just out of curiosity, what’s the last great thing you saw your country do effortlessly and gracefully?

by: Chris

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:07:53 +0000

I’m late to the party, but I have a different sense of the beloved country that is being lost than Peggy Noonan does. I mourn for a Constitutional government with a finely tuned system of checks and balances that has been replaced with a system in which the whim of the President becomes law, or overrides law. I mourn for a country in which civility has been replaced by the politics of personal destruction. I feel a deep sense of loss when a culture that produced Faulkner, Steinbeck, Buckley, Murrow, Ellington and Capra (in the twentieth century alone) now offers us Spears, JLo, American Idol, Facebook, Matthews (Chris and Dave) and the Farrelly Brothers.

by: Celeste Lloyd

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 03:20:43 +0000

You have given a voice to the words that have been bouncing around in my head for days. Thank you for such a common sense approach!