The Story Of Us

No secret where I stand politically, so if my liberal pride may possibly offend you, I'd recommend you stop reading this post here.

Moving on. My blog = my soapbox.

I am so sick and tired of being told that liberals aren't patriotic. There are so many conservative pundits, figure heads, etc... who must either believe that they own the concept of patriotism, or they would like to own the concept of patriotism, so they stand with their podiums and loudly promote that their party is the only party that values freedom, that represent the values America was based on.

To that, I say this:

My friends, I believe it's time we take patriotism and rub our pride for our country in the face of anyone who listens.

Truly, it's a great marketing ploy with roots in the cold war. You say you love America? You say you aren't a communist sympathizer? You must be on our team then! We are the party that loves and values America and Freedom! Woohoo, come join our club! And really, who wouldn't sign up for that? At that time, nobody wanted to appear to be a communist sympathizer (for obvious reasons), so they all joined hands in support of "American values". And why not?

The problem is, that somehow, this thinking has become a politically divisive tool to separate the left from the right.

Where did this rant come from, you may ask? I suppose that pride in our country, pride for our values as individuals, family and country and respect for the American's whose minds and muscle in forming the country are a big part of our household values. I look around our living room and see so many history books, books written by great Americans, books about great Americans and a documentary (America - the Story of Us) playing on the television in the background. Petesie woke up early this morning to finish Lincoln's biography Team Of Rivals and read for hours on end, only to be moved to tears at the end. He choked up reading a passage aloud to me about the greatness of Lincoln (um, sorry honey for writing about this...).

So, friends. July 4th is rapidly approaching and I challenge each of us, liberal or conservative to embrace our love and pride for our country and wear it on our sleeves. At the core of who we are are the millions of men and women who came before us and gave their lives to make our country something that we should ALL be proud of.

The end. Climbing off my soapbox to go eat Poppyseed Chicken. Yum!