Americans express patriotism in multitude of manners
by Stuart Stuebing, reporter

    Since the 911 attacks, I have seen a lot of patriotism in Texas, and it is evident that our people are proud to be Americans.

   I see bumper stickers all the time that read, “I am proud to be an American.” I drive down the road and see flags attached to cars and I have been to sporting events and witnessed people with their faces and bodies painted red, white and blue.

   Recently, at a movie theatre, I saw a short clip from Lee Greenwood singing his song I am Proud to be an American. When the song was finished, the audience applauded and whistled. Wow, I was feeling patriotic.

   Before I can begin to be proud to be an American though, I must ask myself: what is an American? Is an American a person; or is it an ideal or a way of life?

   Are we proud to be Americans because of the Japanese cars we drive or is it because we can go to Best Buy and purchase all the Japanese electronics we want? Is it the convenience of fast food restaurants that are open 24 hours a day at that makes us proud to be American?

   Is it the accessibility of all the corporate Block Buster Video and Walgreen’s stores on every street corner that makes us proud to be Americans? Is it MTV?

   Is it the logo on the U.S. dollar that says “In God We trust” that makes us proud to be an Americans?

   Or are we proud to be an Americans because we have a Wal-Mart on every street corner that stays open 24 hours a day but pays its employees minimum wage to work there?

   Are we proud to be Americans because it cost our president over $60 million dollars to get elected?

 cOh yeah, anybody can be President in America. Is that is what I learned in U.S. history. How much did it cost Lincoln to get elected?

   I think I know why we are proud to be Americans. I bet we are proud to be Americans because we killed the American Indians for their lands and herded them off to remote reservations.

   Or we are proud to be Americans because of the cruel and unusual ways we treated the black African slaves when we kidnapped them and brought them to this country.

   I think we are proud to be Americans because we let our Supreme Court elect President Bush by stopping the re-count in Florida and, in effect, discounted the minority vote (oh yeah, your vote counts).

   I think we are proud to be Americans because Clinton blatantly lied under oath several times but was acquitted after a multi-million dollar investigation by Kenneth Starr.

   We are proud to be Americans because we have teen idols like Snoop Dogg and Britney Spears and other thugs that our youths look up to and worship.

   We are proud to be Americans because we can take our families to professional sporting events and spend over $100 for parking, sodas and souvenirs.

   Okay, at this point, you would probably feel proud if I were shot.

   Right?

   Well, I am an American, and I have rights.

   According to the Bill of Rights, some of those rights are freedom of speech (maybe, that is why I chose journalism as a major) the right to bear arms (even though the government has put several restrictions on that) and the freedom of religion (I think there is a gentlemen in prison because he has four wives and I believe the ATF had an incident with a religious cult in Waco).

  Anyway, you get the point.

   Just like you and every other American, I have rights.

   Now before you start calling me a communist pig, I did voluntarily serve this country honorably for eight and a half years in the U.S. Army. I defended the nation of Kuwait against Iraqi aggression during the Gulf War.

   Throughout my career, I deployed around the world to various hotspots on peacekeeping missions.

   No, I do not think I deserve a medal or a handout for serving my country, but I do feel that I really accomplished a lot.

   I feel proud when I tune into CNN and see Saddam Hussein smiling slyly at the camera or when I see the movie Black Hawk Down and witnessed my brothers in arms being slaughtered because the Clinton administration had an inability to let our military commanders do their job in Somailia.

   Just so you know, the first thing I am doing tomorrow is purchasing a 99-cent bumper sticker for my new $33,000 Japanese car so I can show how patriotic I am.