Out of the mouths....

Just to pass this one on; I got it from BeyondTheMainstream.

A first grade teacher explains to her class that she is an American. She asks her students to raise their hands if they are American, too. Not really knowing why but wanting to be like their teacher, their hands explode into the air like fireworks.

There is, however, one exception: A girl named Gita has not gone along with the crowd. The teacher asks her why she has decided to be different.

"Because I'm not an American," replied Gita.

"Then," asks the teacher, "What are you?"

"I'm a proud Indian," boasts the little girl.

The teacher is a little perturbed. She asks Gita why she is an Indian.

"Well, my mom and dad are Indians, so I'm an Indian too."

Now the teacher is upset. "That's no reason," she snaps. "If your mom was an idiot, and your dad was an idiot, what would you be then?"

Gita thinks for a moment.

"Then," she says, "I'd be an American."

Yeah, yeah, I know, elitist liberal crap pissing on America. Bite me.

Actually, on a serious albeit unimportant philosophical note, is there actually any reason I should be proud of being an American? I mean it, seriously. This has nothing to do with any values in which we do or at least claim to believe or any good we may have or at least tell ourselves we have done as a nation.

The thing is, I was born here. It's my home and I freely admit to an abiding affection for it and for the people who live in it, including even a goodly hunk of those who flipped their lids and their voting levers for Shrub. (That, as opposed to the bigoted, knuckle-dragging mouthbreathers who claim to speak for all of them.) But as far as I can see, I didn't have a damn thing to do with being an American. It wasn't the result of anything I did, it was strictly an accident of geography.

People should take pride in the good they do and in the accomplishments they achieve. For most of us, being an American simply doesn't fit either description. So what about being an American can we be "proud" of? I figure the only people who can express pride in being Americans per se are immigrants, those who made a conscious choice to be such. For me, I can't see any more justification for me to be proud of being American than for being tall.