patriotism

On Friday, I had a conversation with an associate (who will remain nameless for certain reasons) about America and I asked him generally what he thought about our country. He is undoubtedly one of the most intelligent people that I know, and when posed with this question he voiced his opinion that he thought Denmark and Norway had better health care systems than the US and that in general those European nations were just better countries. By this declaration, he jumped on the traditional liberal bandwagon which is of the opinion that America is inferior and full of itself. Granted, America IS full of itself, but that's part of why I love my country. Why does it seem to be generally accepted that highly intelligent people here in the states eschew and seem to be embarrassed by their country? I must make clear that I'm certainly not one to endorse blind acceptance to any government, as that's where so many peoples have gotten into trouble in the past. One must remember that America was set up so that its citizens could criticize and be heard AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

I think that America is the greatest country in the world, warts and all. We have our problems, sure, but we're always working on them. We are a hodge-podge of gene pools which traditionally has built off of the strengths of variation and differences in opinion and ways of life. There's a reason why the brilliant fathers of our country put the First Amendment first!