I Am A Tired American

by: warner todd huston | published: 04 05, 2009

I am tired of many things going on today, things that seem designed to undermine and destroy our great country. Certainly, we all have the right to express our opinions and, naturally, every American holding any particular ideology will see things that do not correspond to his idea of the "real America" at any given time. It is right and good that we, as citizens, should seek to make the changes we think necessary to make our country strong. We can all agree that people of intelligence and integrity might agree to disagree, but there are some things about a country that, when abandoned or abruptly changed, creates a place markedly different than what it was previously.

These sorts of seminal changes in the fabric of a nation should only be undertaken when that fabric is rotten even to its core. There have been bad spots of America that had to be surgically removed, we all know. But the core of this nation, despite its blemishes, is not now and never has been rotten.

And so I am tired of the many people who are native to this country that want to destroy what it is to make it into what it isn't, never was, and cannot be. If we wish this country to be as great into the future as it has been in the past this self-destructive behavior must be stopped.

I am tired of the Constitution being treated as if it is written on a chalkboard to be erased and re-written at will. I am tired of judges imagining they can write laws instead of just read them. There is a reason that judges are said to be "reading at law," a reason they why they aren’t called legislators.

I am tired of people claiming that this country isn't a Christian nation. When 51 out of 55 members of our Constitutional Convention were Christian, when nearly every president has taken the oath of office with his hand on the Christian Bible, and when Congress has opened every session with a prayer, it is ridiculous to claim this isn't a majority Christian nation nor that Christianity has noting to do with us. I am tired of people imagining that the Constitution says it is freedom from religion and not freedom of religion.

I am tired of teachers who imagine that teaching feelings is better than teaching facts. Tired of schools that operate as if self-esteem is more important than math, science or the correct answers on a test. I am ashamed that American children know more about TV and Rap music than they do about American history and I’m angry that our schools don't seem to care.

I am tired of people who claim that any American president has ever been "just like Hitler" or "just like the terrorists." These people reveal that they don't know the definition of "terrorist" or the history and crimes of Hitler.

I am tired of being told that our nation is "just as racist now as it has always been," even though the opportunity for minorities in the USA tops that of nearly every other country now or in history. Further, I am tired of the racism that did exist in the USA in generations past being claimed as worse than that of any other country or people in history even though it then existed side by side with the same racism everywhere. Every race color and creed has been a slave or oppressed by some other race color or creed since men first ventured out from their caves. America did not invent racism, but America has done much to eliminate it.

I am tired of people who think all our soldiers are thugs or are too stupid to make it in the "real world" and that their only chance to make it in life was to join the military. Despite that the US military has always had the most independent minded and selfless soldiers in the history of the world and despite that the US military has far more often been deployed to feed the starving, clothe the destitute, and rebuild other's nations after disasters, these people want to tear down our homegrown heroes and I am bone-weary tired of it.

I am tired of being told that Americans "deserve" to die just because they got up to go to work that day. No one, anywhere, deserves to be blown up in an office building, a disco, a mall or as they travel in a commuter train. I am tired of being told that the people who perpetrate such acts are driven to it by the United States and merely need to be "understood" instead of stopped, sick of being told they should be treated like a purse-snatcher instead of a terrorist.

I am tired of actors as assumed "experts" on issues that they portrayed in a movie. Acting like a doctor studying a disease or acting like a lawyer representing the downtrodden does not equal being one or having the expertise to discuss it in the halls of Congress. I am also tired of singers who think that because they have sold a few thousand albums they are entitled to impose their every harebrained political, environmental, or religious theory upon their audiences. Playing a guitar does not qualify one for brain surgery or rocket science. Being able to rhyme with a mouthful of gold-plated teeth does not make one a philosopher.

I am tired of comedians who present every southerner as a buck toothed, knuckle dragging, moron who can't think beyond a six-pack of beer and a hunting rifle. I am also tired of so-called artists who think it amusing to cover religious icons in dung or use the American flag as a doormat. And I am sick and tired of our Federal tax dollars going to fund such trash.

I am tired of every TV show presenting American parents as stupid, selfish, dolts who are uninterested in their children's well being. I am also sick of children in those same shows being presented as smarter than every adult in the series. Children are not "little adults" they are CHILDREN.

Speaking of children, I am tired ... and repulsed... by the sexualization of them. As young girls' clothing gets smaller, tighter and more revealing we desensitize everyone to the joys of being a child and cause young people to delve into areas for which they are unprepared by nature to fully comprehend. I am tired of sex being peddled to our children by Madison Avenue, Hollywood and the music industry.

I am tied of every company being presented as an evil monster that wishes its employees to be ripped from the bosoms of their family to work for slave wages when the American worker has one of the highest continuing standards of living in history.

I am tired of the political elite who look upon the space between Washington DC and Los Angeles as "Fly over country" fit only for moronic, lowly and unimportant people. Even though it is those same people whom they fleece on a continuing basis to pay for their comfortable living, from whom they acquire their free health care, and from whose generosity they retire with bloated pensions.

I am tired of people who feel that government should be our Mother and Father, giving those politicians such power. Tired of people who want everyone else to take responsibility for giving them the money to buy liquor and supply them with Play-Stations and cell phones. Sick of people who imagine anything they desire is somehow owed to them just because they were born.

I am tired of sports fans that imagine that because the team they support wins a series this, then, gives them the right to burn people's automobiles, destroy businesses, or perpetrate violence. Sports do not justify criminal behavior. I am also tired of the millionaire players who act like petulant 12 year-olds, breaking laws, doing and dealing drugs, and treating women and the public like playthings just because they think they are "stars.”

And, finally, I am tired of patriotism being presented as some sort of disease or mental illness. I am proud that this great country has sponsored some of the greatest inventions in history. It has entertained and let soar the imagination of every soul on the planet. It has raised the standard of living for every nation on earth. It has brought food and products of necessity to the world. It is responsible for bringing democracy to many oppressed peoples across both time and geography. It truly has been a beacon of freedom spreading its light o'er the earth.

America is not an evil place. And I am sick and tired of being told it is.

add a comment