JULY 4, 2002             I am an American. I catch a thrill from U.S. victories in international sports. I am stirred by the Star Spangled Banner and the Pledge of Allegiance. I wear my special star spangled sweater on the Fourth of July and Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day. I feel amazingly fortunate to have been born an American. I can’t imagine wanting to live anyplace else.           Of course, I had no choice in the matter. Others born in other countries have nationalistic pride as well. The pride of nations playing for the World Cup is proof that patriotism is a human characteristic. It is not just an American thing.           All that being said I cannot say that I am necessarily proud to be an American. I’ve read our history extensively. I marvel at the idealism and practical intelligence and wisdom of the founders of our republic. There is so much to admire about the nation that promises liberty and justice for all. When my country has lived its pledge I am proud.           On the 4th of July I think of America as it is. It is a “melting pot” that has not truly melted. It is not one nation “under God,” but a fragmented nation under many gods and no God. We celebrate our diversity by establishing special ghettoes for each one. Gated communities are springing up everywhere to separate “us” from “them.” Native people whose nations we destroyed by warfare, occupation or bacterial infection still languish in poverty in many parts of this land that my ancestors came from Europe to claim. Who can be proud of the way we took land and life away from these people to make the American dream?           And who can be proud of the history of American slavery? I can get a feeling of pride in the way black people have found some dignity through the civil rights movement. Every time I see a black athlete playing for schools in Florida, Mississippi, Georgia or Alabama, I remember what it took for these descendants of the slaves to even gain admission to schools.           Who can be proud of the sad reality that in the richest nation in the world, there is no assurance of a livable income for the unemployed or under employed? Who can be proud of the absence of health care for the poor, especially children? Who can be proud of the inability of the elderly poor to pay for prescription drugs? I would like to be able to be proud of a country that truly had compassion for the weakest and poorest among us.           Who can be proud of a corporate system that pays executives huge salaries and benefits, especially rewarding those who know how to “turn a company around” by laying off thousands of workers, exporting jobs overseas, and transferring corporate headquarters to off-shore countries to avoid paying American taxes? When will the American worker—and that includes professionals like engineers and high technology fields—realize what black and migrant people have realized forever, that management is not benevolent in America? The company wants to receive loyalty but not reward it. The corporate God is the bottom line.            Who, except the conservative isolationists, can be proud of America’s inability to live up to its treaties with other nations? The Native People learned long ago that the white man speaks with a forked tongue. Witness the U.S. withdrawal from its Nuclear, Environmental, Population, World Health and too many others for me to keep track of. I wonder how America can expect to live in the world in the future cut off from the people of the world. History has yet to demonstrate that one country holds supremacy for many generations. “Pride goeth before the fall.”           Finally, since my page is coming to an end, I am not particularly proud in the American mantras that claim God as source of our might and right and place in the world. The papers are full of letters trying to claim America as a “Christian nation.” If it were only true. People are incensed about the court declaring the phase “under God” unconstitutional. Again, if America acted with a Godly attitude within its borders to all people, and respected other nations as God’s people, I would welcome it. How can the most militant nation in human history that enriches its wealth by selling armaments all around the world piously declare itself to be “under God?”           One must wonder whether the American Dream is only a dream. Or is it a vision yet to be fulfilled? As of this 4th of July, 2002 I wonder what we’re so proud of? — Art Morgan, July 4, 2002