Hooray For The U.S.A.! (Seriously)

For all the times I bash our vast American stupidity and call bullshit on my fellow citizens, you could easily get the impression that Buster is some sort of hater of his own country.  But in the words of our great pioneer forefather Daniel Boone, "Au contraire, mon frere!"

It's true that I'm not big on nationalistic cheerleading.  I reject jingoism and "love-it-or-leave-it" and "American exceptionalism" and all that rah-rah crap.  We'd be a better country if we focused more on feeding our school children than on making them memorize the Pledge.

But that said, as I look around at the rest of the world today, what do I see?  A lot of horrible stuff in a lot of places -- Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Venezuela, Egypt, Libya, Sudan, North Korea.  Outide the Sochi Olympics, the punk-activist Russian girl group Pussy Riot was literally whipped by Kossacks.  (Are you fucking kidding me?  Kossacks?)

What a retrograde mess.  So much death and violence and unrest.  (Did you ever notice that "unrest" is always a hot topic, but "rest" is never reported?  "Brian, after last week's breakout of civil rest here in Lower Slobovia, things remain calm and quiet.  Back to you.")

By comparison, we look pretty good indeed.  America is far from perfect, our problems are many and numerous, but so are our charms and advantages.  We have much to work on and much to be proud of.  Yes, we'll have our seemingly endless political arguments, but no matter -- on the whole, our country will always be basically OK.  For all our faults, we're still the place that draws people from all over the globe, still the nation so many others try to emulate.

It's good to occasionally take a step back and look at the bigger picture.  For me, this has just been one of those moments.  Don't get used to it!  ; )

Hooray for the U.S.A.!