I feel like I hear it everywhere, how great our country is. And I very clearly have received the message that I should be proud to live in the United States because we are the best, we are the smartest, most advanced, most civilized, most cool people ever.
I'll be very honest in saying that I don't know almost anything about any other country in the world because I've never even traveled outside of the United States. So I won't go on a tirade about how many other countries have it so much better than we do. I won't tell you about how awesome Canada is or Denmark or Sweden or Germany. I won't claim to have any knowledge about which country's students are the best educated or most well-rounded. I won't try to pretend that I know how socialism is working out for others and say we need it here.
What I will say is that a group of people that labels itself as the best, the greatest, and the most prosperous on earth is arrogant, foolish, and probably wrong.
I'm grateful that I was born in a country where I have access to medical care, clean water, food, and stable sources of income. That's all good stuff; I won't deny that. But I'm not proud to be a citizen of the United States. I am not a patriot.
If the U.S. is the best, that means another nation is the worst. If the U.S. is the richest, that means another nation is the poorest. If we are the highest educated people in the world, that means somewhere else there are people with the lowest level of education in the world. The only reason I have such a huge abundance of food and clean water to nourish myself with is because someone else doesn't have any. Where there are winners, there are bound to be losers. More-thans and less-thans. Superfluous abundance and destitute poverty. Obsessive cleanliness and rotten filth. The strongest defenses and the utterly defenseless.
If our goals are to have everything, to win everything, to be above everyone else, then the only way to reach those goals is to push someone else down, to take away from others, to wish others harm so we can have what we want. This is patriotism: to love your country, to pledge allegiance to the flag, to be willing to die for your country, to earnestly believe that your country stands above all others.
This is love for humanity:
To desire blessings and prosperity for all people and all nations
To use our resources to lift others up instead of dropping bombs on them
To care and grieve just as much for the men, women and children that we kill in our wars as we do for our own soldiers
To turn the other cheek instead of always being the nation that strikes first
To be the most compassionate instead of the strongest
To be the most generous instead of the most wealthy
To be willing to compromise instead of making power plays
If I lived in a nation with these goals, with these standards for excellence, my heart would swell with pride. I am not a patriotic citizen of my country; I am a member of humanity. And as a member of humanity, my heart aches for all those who suffer so we can prosper.
