Proud?

[MobBoss]

How can you be proud of something you have nothing to do with? Unless you are an immigrant, you did not choose to be an American. The same thing can be said for me. I love Québec and our place in this world, but I can't say I'm proud to be a Québécois. I was just born here. I take pride in what I do, not where I'm from.

I choose to be an american every day. I have to choice to leave if I wish last I recall....also I could renounce my american citizenship....although I think someone would be crazy to do so.

 

[ummmm........]

More lucky than proud really, but since that wasn't an option . . .

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

You mean where Custer disobeyed a direct order and got his men slaughtered? Yes. Now, let me reiterate.....Little Bighorn was not some coordinated government attempt at wiping out all indians. It was a single man, disobeying his orders.
.

As I recall, it was Custer's men who got slaughtered, not the ten thousand Native Americans.

I would also like to point out that the Native Americans are far from innocent in this game, too. It was they who committed what would be considered today war crimes, i.e scalping, attacking unarmed civilians, raiding, pilliaging, mutilating people. Not to say that we, or any other nation isn't guilty, but don't try and play the cards as is if it's the poor poor natives against big bad Americans.

 

[Elta]

China + India control 17% of the world's wealth? Got a source?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:SuperpowerGDP.PNG

 

[megalomaniac]

If I weren't proud, I wouldn't be where I am today.

 

[downtown]

Being American is pretty cool! Thats not to say there are things in other countries that I like a whole lot better than America, but I'm still pretty glad I am what I am.

 

[North King]

Proud? Er... Maybe. I never really actively felt tears of pride fall whenever I glanced in a flag's general direction, but I do support the growth of the USA and the happiness of the people in it.

You mean where Custer disobeyed a direct order and got his men slaughtered? Yes. Now, let me reiterate.....Little Bighorn was not some coordinated government attempt at wiping out all indians. It was a single man, disobeying his orders.

O_o

My God, pontificate about Iraq if you want, MobBoss, but don't talk about topics if you have no knowledge of them, please.

There most certainly was a campaign of genocide waged against the natives, fought on the military, biological, and economic fronts at least, and it was quite bloody. There were already very few natives by the beginning of the settlement of the West--but then the USA completely slaughtered the rest of them, with only a lucky few thousands surviving. Out of a population of millions.

And it WAS a concentrated, determined effort to kill the natives, in more ways than one. There are the notable examples of Wounded Knee (which certainly cannot be passed off as a disobeyed order), the Trail of Tears (relocation? Only if relocation also includes more or less destroying the population while you're at it), and even further back.

Dozens of wars were fought against the natives, utterly slaughtering them at any opportunity.

If there was ever any justification needed to prove that the USA was determined to wipe out the native population, take the deliberate effort to completely exterminate the main food source of the plains tribes, buffalo. They were slaughtered by the millions and the billions; the took the skins of the buffalo since they were easily transported, and left the carcasses to rot, destroying the food source of the natives.

And that was not hunting. Hunting does not involve utterly slaughtering all of the animal in a fashion which will exterminate them in a year or two, while flooding the market with goods whose price will plummet. It was war, total war.

"The only good Indian I ever saw was a dead Indian."

~William T. Sherman

 

[Dionysius]

And it WAS a concentrated, determined effort to kill the natives, in more ways than one. There are the notable examples of Wounded Knee (which certainly cannot be passed off as a disobeyed order), the Trail of Tears (relocation? Only if relocation also includes more or less destroying the population while you're at it), and even further back.

ach, it was wounded knee i meant! these indian placenames
are a little confusing.

 

[El_Machinae]

I disagree. The question you're asking is simply one of satisfaction. And I think that its unfair to frame the question as "either you're proud or you should Get the fu heck out!" (I realize that's not your intent, but its a defacto limitation of the question you posted)

That's what I mean, actually. A proud person goes through personal sacrifice because they are proud. A proud person won't ask for directions. A person who's proud of his house maintains it well, etc.

So, if there was a better option, would you sacrifice that option because you're proud to be an American?

Anyway, I thought it was a decent way of rephrasing. But I suck at analogies.