Proud to Be an American
November 7th, 2008.
Salaroche

In the morning of November 7th, 2008, for the first time in the nearly five years I’ve been living outside the United States, it felt good to stand before a group of people from different countries and serenely but confidently tell them I was proud to be an American.

For the first time in all my expatriate years, unlike in many other previous occasions, I knew nobody would laugh at me, or sneer at me or even attack me verbally for expressing my pride in America. This time I knew everyone would agree. This time I knew they all felt a similar feeling towards the United States.

During my wanderings of the past few years, I always felt on the defensive whenever anyone mentioned the United States. I always knew there would eventually be something in the conversation that I would have to give explanations about.

I had a big chip on my shoulder and there was no possible way for me to brush it off. I knew very well that something had gone sadly wrong in America over the past 7 years and my being constantly aware of it angered me and frustrated me. It bothered me enormously having to admit to myself that we, as a people, had blundered so badly in the previous two presidential elections.

In an effort to minimize the effect of our collective errors in the eyes of any critics, I would always come up with historical analogies. I would mention Germany in the 1930’s, Italy a few years before, Spain up to 1975 and even Napoleon by the beginning of the 19th century.

Those analogies would somehow mitigate the force of whatever anti-American criticism I might have felt under, but in the end I was always left with the feeling that I had just shifted the blame somewhere else, not cleared it or vindicated it.

The fact is that no single individual can ever vindicate the errors of a whole nation. Not all by himself. Particularly not when those collective errors are so clearly in the open for everyone to see.

The American people blundered heavily in electing George W. Bush to the presidency, most markedly in 2004, when most of us were already aware that he had lied to us and deceived us. Yet, fear, dogma and division prevailed over common sense in that election and a good majority of us sent him back to the White House.

Not that John Kerry did a good job in trying to defeat him. Kerry simply wimped himself away from the White House by not managing to get off the swift boat the Republicans put him on.

But it has been shameful to have such smirking, inarticulate, arrogant and incompetent man speaking in the name of all Americans for the past few years. I have always known that the American people have much, much better qualities than the ones that man and his backward and perverted policies represent, so I always felt a good measure of frustration and anger whenever anyone asked me “what do you think about your president?” 

I had a big chip on my shoulder and that chip had a very bad name: George W. Bush.

Fortunately, in a little over two months that chip will be finally brushed off my shoulder for good.

Now comes the future, the hard work, the getting together for the common good. Now comes America, the America I have always admired. The land where everything is possible, where everyone has a chance, where rationality and pragmatism prevail over fear and dogma and misguided patriotism, where American ideals prevail over narrow selfishness, where hope brings out the best in all of us.

Now comes President Barack Obama.

Salaroche