Most of the
World hates my country. They see its
rampant commercialism, its seeming
lack of concern for its citizens, its
backwards ideas on
gun control, its obsession with
sex,
violence and all those other
puritan taboos. And just looking at those, they're right, my country
sucks. We're arrogant, we're not particularly
european in our sentiments, not
urbane enough, not
moral enough or sometimes too focused on reality.
But people who don't live here don't see the beauty of America -- the America that isn't now and never really was, but lives in the back of the mind of everyone who truly considers themselves an American. The country that immigrants sailing into New York Harbor saw on the face of lady liberty. The place where everyone is truly free to follow their dream -- the American Dream -- the house, the kids, the self-sufficient life out from under the yoke of opression. It never existed in reality, but recent movies like American Beauty and The Patriot have tried to capture something of America's greatness on the silver screen.
Maybe it's finally time for my country to come into its own. To live up to it's dream. To realize the Myth of America.