Talk about lucky!  To be born in the United States
is a big leg up  -- all right, half a leg for some --
however we look at it.  Yes, we have clean-up
to do.  Yes, there is prejudice -- against women,
against people of color, against gays and lesbians,
against -- this is so shameful, it hurts to write --
people with handicaps (never mind the lip service
being paid)  or are in other ways 'different'
on the surface.  Yes, we are doing harm to our
surroundings.  Yes, some of us grasp and cheat.
Some commit crimes, some of them unspeakable.
But with all that, I know of no better place.
Most of us care about our sisters and brothers.  
More of us are taking care to take more care
of Earth and ourselves.  Not just for us, but
so we can keep caring for others.  Be as free of
the kinds of  physical and emotional garbage
indulgence dumps on top of the pain and suffering
it is our individual fate to bear.  Yes, we are
a nation that believes good will triumph over evil.
Yes, we believe that those of us fortunate enough
to be citizens of a land where faith, hope, hard
work, improving chances and the freedom
to move about and speak out according to our
wishes, and where our privacy will not be violable
at the whim of  some faceless functionary,
and where we will not need fear we will be tortured
or subjected to unwarranted searches and seizures
because someone on high tapped a key -- where
we feel we won't starve or be forced to live
in a box or get carted to a mental hospital
in a Stalinesque move -- where  these aren't mere  
dreams curling from pipes or invading our blood
via needles, pills, or demigods.  Yes, we have much
to do to save ourselves and our families from
being victimized in one way or another by
an ever-growing list of uppers and downers.
Yes, we have to convince our leaders to turn
away from war so we can fight drugs and violence
for real.  Yes, we have to stop racial profiling.
Yes, we have to reinstall separation of Executive,
Legistative, and Judiciary.  Yes, we have to see
that our laws protect us all from abuse, at home
and away.  Put meat on bare bone laws enacted by
cynics that only clog the system, if they don't
actually interfere.  Budget more for vital services --
clean air and water, flood control, fire and police
protection, child protection, health benefits,
and so much more.  Yes, we have the wherewithal.
Just have to see it goes where it ought, not down
into pockets.  We are not a people, on the whole,
unwilling to sacrifice.  We want everyone to be fed
and clothed and housed.  We want to help the sick
and lame.  We want justice to be more than a word
in Civics.   Am I proud to be an American?   
YES!!   I grew up on The Fruited Plain and Purple
Mountain Majesty.  Saluted our flat-out gorgeous
red, white and blue flag with the stars and stripes.
See in mind's eye the lakes of Minnesota, the bridges
of New York, the vast fields of tall corn in my native
state of Illinois.  It would take a book to describe
the wonders we possess.  Coming up during the
second world war,  I believed the teachers
who told us children that police kicked down
doors in other countries.  Never would we have to
worry that men would burst into our bedrooms
and take us away.   This is what Our Boys are
fighting for.  This is what sets us apart.   This
and the  Declaration of Independence.  Atlantic
to Pacific, Canada to Mexico, we are beyond
rich, we were told.  Free in the best sense.
I believed.  I believe now.  I also believe
that the smaller the world gets, the bigger we
must be within.  As individuals, as a nation.  
That we must grow so big, we will feel no need
to rattle weapons of destruction or push others
around.  That only if we believe -- truly believe --
 in individual rights,  a free economy, and doing
our duty -- can we help our beautiful America
be all she can be!  More beautiful than ever!
To quote Dickens' Tiny Tim,
God bless us,  every one!!

          (c) Phyllis Jean Green, Independence Day, USA, 2008