Land That I Love....

This post is inspired by Nigerian Drama Queen's post here.

Many people love to hate on America. It's the big white giant elephant in the room that everyone can just target for fun. I mean George Bush jokes are quite international. No one will argue with you if you say things like: "Damned Americans", "American's are so dumb", etc. Most will agree, laugh and move on.

But I'm always sensitive to all that kinda talk. I LOVE America. I'm sorry but I do. I love America and all it stands for. A lot of those things are the things I stand for. I don't know where to start but let me start with these.....

God Bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans, white with foam
God bless America, My home sweet home.

oooh, here's another one:

O beautiful, for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.

O beautiful, for pilgrim feet
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America! God mend thine ev'ry flaw;
Confirm thy soul in self control, thy liberty in law!

O beautiful, for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America! May God thy gold refine,
'Til all success be nobleness, and ev'ry gain divine!

O beautiful, for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years,
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea!

I can also quote the Star Spangled Banner, but I won't (yet anyway, no promises!) but let's take a look at the Pledge of Allegiance, which I had to recite in my school every morning in home room, standing up and facing the flag:

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

The Pledge of Allegiance was amended in 1954 and here's what the convincing argument was for amending it:

These words...will remind Americans that despite our great physical strength we must remain humble. They will help us to keep constantly in our minds and hearts the spiritual and moral principles which alone give dignity to man, and upon which our way of life is founded.

Some people reading this are wandering...........ehn ehn so what? I'm only going this far because many people don't know the context in which the average American live. In high school i HAD to take US History in Grade 11, it was compulsory for graduating. They read all these things, they imbibe it all. These words are not just history, they are lived, sometimes on a daily basis and mean soooo much to the average American. These are good principles. Patriotism, Equality, Liberty, Justice, "Pursuit of happiness", Entrepreneurship, Freedom, Human Rights, Constitutitional Rights, Democracy, and so on and so forth. I'm not saying that they do all these things perfectly oh, but no one can argue that these concepts are ones that America is pre-occupied with and grapple constantly with, they are at the forefronts of these discourses. Which is more than can be said for the majority of countries anywhere.

I always say they are many bad apples in the US but all you need is one good apple, and that ONE good apple can change the lot. Not only that but you can almost always bank on the fact that there WILL be one good apple amongst the bunch. That's what America means to me.

People think of America as this homogenous land but it's not. Someone in Boston can be so different from someone in Ohio, so different to a Texan, so different to a Californian, so different from someone from Utah. As in VEEERY different oh. They don't all think alike and feel the same way.

Me I love the country sha. The land of Starbucks, and MTV, and ObamaRama, and........


PS - no one should come to me and tell me I should be writing about Nigeria and all that junk. I'm not small-minded or close-minded enough to only love one country and blind myself to all others. I love Nigeria, Canada, and US all equally. SUE ME THEN.