We don't typically comment on one another's posts around here. We spend enough time talking in the office. I talk about Derek Anderson and his ability to throw a 40 yard seam route where the ball doesn't get more than nine feet off the ground. My colleague talks about Justin Beiber's haircut. Truthfully, I think we're talking at each other more than to each other sometimes.
But his post on liberals vs conservatives and their respective views of patriotism reminded me of something I've often thought about.
What makes something "Un-American"?
Like my colleague, I have conservative family members. For example, my mother was adament back in 2008 that Michelle Obama was "un-American" (because of her comments about being proud to be American for the first time after her husband won a certain primary). I hate to go all George Carlin (or maybe I don't hate it all) on you again... but is not anything that an American does by definition become "American"? So, no matter what the conservatives may wish to think, America is not just capitalism, the second amendment, baseball, strong military, and Toby Keith.
America also includes the murder of abortion providers (oops! Bad example. Many conservatives encourage/support that).
Let's try again. America is prejudice, greed, poverty, crime, and Kanye West. America is love and hate. It is reason and ignorance. It is Ann Coulter and Janeane Garofalo. It is Howard Stern and Rush Limbaugh and Lance Armstrong and Mike Tyson. It is me and (most likely) you.
The point is that you can't decide something or someone is "un-American" because they don't fit your notion of what America should be.
P.S. The exception to the rule is America IS Derek Anderson and NOT Matt Leinart.
video: America! Fuck Yeah!
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