Proud to be an American Skeptic - Muse Apprentice Guild

Published 2003
Muse Apprentice Guild

Proud to be an American Skeptic

I am an American, and I'm proud. I am proud of America's rich legacy of musical innovation, from jazz to country to rock and roll. I am proud of America's sundry and salient writings, from the defiant slave narratives of Frederick Douglass to the brutal realism of John Steinbeck novels to the lyrical beauty of Sandra Cisneros' vignettes. I am proud of America's colorful cadre of artists, from Jacob Lawrence to Jackson Pollack to Georgia O'Keefe. I am proud of American theatre, from New York's buoyant Broadway musicals to the edgy shows at Atlanta's Center for Puppetry Arts. I am proud of the brilliant tapestry that makes up the America cultural landscape: one that weaves in Europeans, Asians, Africans, Middle Easterners, and Hispanics, and that keeps adding threads of every hue. I am even proud of American food, unique in tasty victuals like cornbread and collard greens.

I am proud, too, of America's pioneering civil rights spirit. America, in many ways, is a paradigm for tolerance; though serious problems do persist, women, gays, and various races have made advances in America that they haven't made in many other countries. And yes, I am proud of the Constitution's many merits, especially the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment.

Yet, when I exercise the First Amendment to criticize those things about American government of which I am not proud, I am - paradoxically and narrow-mindedly, I think - called a traitor. But which displays more humane concern - pledging blind allegiance to a country's government regardless of its actions, or questioning its actions when they threaten the welfare of billions of its own and other people?

Say you have a sister, whom of course yo ëu cherish. You nurture her through her various struggles, and provide her with as much love and support as you can give. But is your support untouched by criticism? Do you sit idly by and watch her destroy herself and her friends and family with drugs or other forms of abuse? Or do you try to help her escape her quagmire of misery? Which is the approach that best reflects your sense of compassionate duty to your sibling?

I have never been one to believe in patriotism, always adhering to the idea that it's better to embrace people, not countries. After all, I've often thought, what are countries but randomly drawn boundaries and ill-conceived govern ëments? However, a deeper exploration into the phenomenon of countries reveals that they are ultimately more than than mere borders and states; each country is also an inimitable collection of cultural and ethical values. And it's this aspect of countries that I embrace. In this way, I don't just love America, I love all countries for their vibrant, varied characters.

America is my family, and I'm proud to be a part of her. But I'm not proud of everything the American government does, especially in regard to foreign policy.

As part of the American family, it is not only our right to defy the government's questionable actions, it's our duty.