Believe it

Sometimes, after a particularly pointed rant about the US government, I find myself having to defend my love for this our wonderful country. My explanation is always the same: we only bitch about what we love. I like to bash the Catholic Church, too, on everything from their outlook on gays to their curious devotion to all things European, but only because I love the tradition I was raised in and want desperately to see it become the force of good I know it can be. As a Cub fan, I don't care about how the LA Dodgers spend their money. Sure I may laugh hysterically for hours on end that they paid Juan Pierre $45 million over 5 years, but do I care? Not at all. I will, however, find time to complain about almost every misappropriated dollar that the Cubs spend. Same thing with the USA. Our country is more than a plot of land circumscribed by borders. The USA is an idea, an ideal. It's a notion of something better, a committment to freedom, and the proof that such places can exist. This is the role of the USA, not just for its own citizens, but for all people of the world. We are the place that they dream about in their jail cells, when the ethnic cleansing begins, when the police can no longer be trusted. We are the hope that keeps them going. At the very least, we have the ability be all these things. I know that this country can be all these things. No one can convince me otherwise. And to see its legacy betrayed by shortsighted and stupid men infuriates me beyond all report. So that's why I add my voice to the chorus of disapproval. Because I love this country more deeply than any war-cheerleader could possibly imagine.