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Oct 14, 2006, 01:59 am
| #2 (permalink) (top) |
| BANNED Posts: 2,630 | America I recall in the Kennedy years probably reached it's pinacle as a GREAT Nation, and yeah there was sleazy stuff, and rampant racism, anti-semitism, oppressed gays and women, but it still was the envy of the rest of the world. It's been primarily downhill since then, now under Bush I'm embarressed of being an American, and we are hated as a nation almost universally. |
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Oct 15, 2006, 01:32 am
| #4 (permalink) (top) |
| don't care  Location: NY Posts: 267 | I LOVE AMERICA It's ideas are based on so much freedom in the world. Today I just went to NYC at the WTC memorial and walked the brooklyn bridge and had lunch in chinatown. I love the melting pot that america is. It's a great country unfortunately filled with retards (including GWB). To be American is to believe in the ideals of our forefathers, Equality, freedom, (excluging womens rights, slavery, theism). But no...America was not meant to be a THEOCRACY!! And that's what it's become unfortunately. I feel good to be a 1776 American excluding women/gay rights and slavery. But by no means am I a fat lazy 2006 American. I'm just a fool caught in the rat race of life (Nathan Struth) please help me solve world hunger, It's hard to do it alone. |
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Oct 15, 2006, 01:42 am
| #5 (permalink) (top) |
| Moral Turnip  Location: Oregon, US Posts: 2,283 | One of my favorite quotes on the subject: "Sitting at the table doesn't make you a diner, unless you eat some of what's on that plate. Being here in America doesn't make you an American. Being born here in America doesn't make you an American." Malcolm X Speaks, 1965 I think that to be an American, you have to take part. You have to have a role. There are many roles, many parts, we all can take; some promoting order, some fomenting chaos; some supporting the government, some opposing. The only role we should not allow ourselves is that of apathy and indifference -- sadly, a role too many people choose today. Because I take part, yes, I'm proud to be an American. But not any more proud than I would be to be Mexican, Canadian, Haitian, Irish, Belgian, Russian, Bangladeshi -- you name it. Wherever I lived, wherever I felt a part of a society, I would be proud of my role: since I live here, this is where I am proud. "Would you like some pie, Dr. Stark?" "Science is my pie. Curiosity, my sweet tooth. Knowledge is my candy." |
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Oct 15, 2006, 11:22 am
| #6 (permalink) (top) | |
| Agnostic, Cynic  Location: New York Posts: 285 | Quote:
You see its not all the presidents fault, mostly but it is that you have people in government postions all over the country that are incapable of being in office, Republicans and Democrates. You have people that rule like there following the bible, like a few days ago Bush signed a bill that restricts online gambling. I think if he could he would turn this nation in a god loving society, theocracy and maybe that day will come, i hope not b/c it would take away what makes america great, the melting pot of relgions and ideas. | |
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Oct 17, 2006, 11:32 am
| #11 (permalink) (top) |
| Principled Observer  Location: Toledo, Ohio Posts: 13,873 | The best quote I have ever seen on the topic, and it also happens to evoke my most sincere feelings on the topic as well: “It is my right to be uncommon...if I can; I seek opportunity...not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me. I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment to the stole calm of utopia. I will not trade freedom for beneficence nor my dignity for a handout. I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat. It is my heritage to stand erect, proud, and unafraid; to think and act for myself; enjoy the benefits of my creations and to face the world boldly and say, This I have done, and this is what it means to be an American.” -Dean Alfrange That, to me, is what it means to be an American. Petition of Redress of Grievances: http://www.givemeliberty.org/default.htm Canadian Lawsuit Against Their National Banks: http://www.freewebs.com/classaction/ Osborn F. Enready |
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Oct 17, 2006, 11:47 am
| #12 (permalink) (top) |
| Redskins Rule  Location: South-Western Virginia Posts: 2,451 | For me, the essence of what it means to be an American is an understanding that when you value your neighbors freedom, you secure your own. When you refuse to allow your neighbors to be oppressed, you secure yourself against oppression. When you refuse to allow your neighbor to starve, you protect yourself against starvation. The individual matters and the way you express the respect of the individual is to respect everyone and care for their circumstances with the same level of passion you bring to protecting yourself. I am proud of that America. I am pround of that ideal. Hang together or hang seperately. All I see when I look down, something jumpin' on the ground, Scratchin' dirt, cluckin' in the barnyard - Tell me, could that be you? John Kay |
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Oct 17, 2006, 04:59 pm
| #14 (permalink) (top) | |
| Redskins Rule Location: South-Western Virginia Posts: 2,451 | Quote:
All I see when I look down, something jumpin' on the ground, Scratchin' dirt, cluckin' in the barnyard - Tell me, could that be you? John Kay | |
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Oct 18, 2006, 09:42 am
| #16 (permalink) (top) | |
| Logical Phallussy  Location: In your internets. Posts: 2,991 | Quote:
Am I "proud" to be an American? Hell, no. Then again, I don't think I'm "proud" to be anything. What I don't understand is how people can ascribe a certain mindset to being an American. It's that whole "American exceptionalism" thing, all over again... :rolleyes: - Rob "I'd rather be free and alive!" -- Ron Paul Religion isn't the greatest threat to mankind -- authoritarianism is. The Anarcheion Zeitgeist | |
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Oct 24, 2006, 02:54 pm
| #17 (permalink) (top) | ||
| Iceberg Location: Connecticut Posts: 5,691 | Quote:
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To me personally, it is all about being an individual and maintaining an individual identity in a time where politicians are increasing their pressure upon people to all be the same. It is all about resisting the pressures from a nation that is growing increasingly totalitarian through socialist and communist ideology by encouraging people to abdicate the authority of their own lives over to the nanny statists and elites who think they know better for me than I do for myself. It is with all my might that I will resist these people, and their overbearing powers, until I breathe my final breath. I relish in the founding philosophies of this country that are all too often being run over roughshod by people who have no clue what the founding philosophies were in this great experiment called democracy. And if these people who are destroying Liberty and Freedom are consciously participating in its destruction, then they are even more dangerous than I currently think today. Americans should be proud of their heritage. Americans should be proud of their nation. However, Americans need to be vigilant of their government because too many people are increasingly unaware of their government's actions and the philosopny supporting those actions. What people know of their government they increasingly become ashamed of and equate this with the Nation. However, the Nation is the population that comprises its borders and not just the government. When the people allow the government to lead them astray because they are too busy in their livelihoods to take care, then the Nation arrives at the state in which it finds itself today. We are represented by a government that increasingly no longer reflects the values of its people. No wonder people are ashamed to admit they are Americans. It is no wonder to me that people are being taught to hate America. This will only get worse unless the people of this nation awaken to the reality that both the Democratic and Republican Parties have failed its people. The rebirth of individual responsibility will reignite the fires of individualism that are rooted in the founding philosophies of this nation. There is no room for collectivism in our pursuit of Liberty in America. Americans must desert, once and for all, these antiquated political parties and return to the individual responsibility for their own lives. Anything less will spell the certain destruction of the America founded and established by our courageous forefathers. I raise my glass in a toast to Liberty and wish for all Americans to drink as well..  Brien the Iceberg If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything. M.T. | ||
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Oct 26, 2006, 04:55 am
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| BANNED Location: Los Angeles Posts: 3,203 | Quote:
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