What is the USA?

[Stick of Joseph]

In my opinion, this country and people have done more for the world than we get credit for. This country has been a leader in all charity through out the world. I find it sad how quickly people forget how much good we have done. I recently was in western France and a very old man who was a boy during the ocupation of France by the Nazi's told me that he thanks each American he sees for what our country did for his. In his house he still had a piece of barbed wire from the american lines.
I know that this man sees the mistakes we make but never will he let the bad overshadow the good in America.
I will always love the United States and I know that I am blessed to live in this country.

I found this poem, its on the statue of liberty and I think it pretty much shows our true attitude.

The New Colossus ​

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,​

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;​

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand​

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame​

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name​

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand​

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command​

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.​

"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she​

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,​

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,​

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.​

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,​

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"​

 

[Mr Spinkles]

I think people have said too quickly what they think of America before considering the original question, "What IS America?"

Is America limited to the current administration and its actions?
Is American its history?
Is it just what you see in the news?
Is it your friends, neighbors, and co-workers?
Is it an ideal?

I think that something as dynamic and diverse as America can be all of these things, and I don't see how one can have a black-and-white, good-or-bad view of it. America is a big place.....it has all sorts of climates, ethnicities, subcultures, and people within it. (Can New York City, Las Vegas, and Dayton Ohio all be part of the same 'America'?) How a person can generalize about millions of people, spread across millions of miles in all sorts of environments is beyond me. In my experience, people are basically the same wherever you go--whether it's Ohio, Britain, France, etc. The culture is different, of course.....but the people are basically the same. They all basically want to be free, to get their piece of the pie, to raise a family and enjoy life.

Ultimately, I think, for anyone who has been to many different parts of the United States, the question "What do you think of Americans?" is equivalent to "What do you think of people?"

I, for one, will not let politics and prejudice prevent me from enjoying a 4th of July barbecue with my flag-saluting, backwards Christian neighbors. I wouldn't trade them in for any other neighbors in the world.

 

[Scuba Pete]

Thanks Spinks, but I didn't know you were coming over! I'll put another steak on for you!

I am both American and Columbian by birth. Most Americans have no CLUE how G-R-E-A-T we have it here. Yes, there are a lot of jealous countries who can't stand our freedom.

Toughie kaboombas!

Now, in all reality probably few on this board have had a real hand in making America what it is today. I am talking about the sacrifices that were made by so many before this. Man I feel lucky! I didn't invent it, I didn't build it, I wasn't even born here... yet I get to be an American. Not even Shrub can take away the joy of being an American.

Now don't get me started on my heavenly country.

 

[Neo-Logic]

The United States is a melting pot of cultures and races that we are now recently learning to cope, deal, and accept one another in this nation of many faces and colors. The first Pilgrims themselves being immigrants in this new land and a steady flow of immigrants from all over the world constantly pouring and trickeling into the United States has contributed much to the nation that we are today.

I couldn't be prouder or happier to be an American citizen than I currently am.

 

[The Black Whirlwind]

Oh say can you see, by the dawns early light, what so proudly we hailed, at the twilights last gleaming...

brings a tear to my eye. May the Force bless America.

I love america for the freedom. I can say what i want (with a few, minor restrictions), pretty much do whatever i want, and go wherver i want. We may have a corrupt government, but I would rather be an American than have all the moolah in the world.

 

[michel]

I can't think of America without thinking of the Battle Hymn of the Republic;
With me, most associations are musical ones;
I see the immigrants, all going over to start a brand new life.


Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
he is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
he hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword;
his truth is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on.

I have seen him in the watch fires of a hundred circling camps
they have builded him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read his righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps;
his day is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His day is marching on.

I have read a fiery Gospel writ in burnished rows of steel;
"As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal";
let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,
since God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Since God is marching on.

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
he is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat;
oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him; be jubilant, my feet;
our God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Our God is marching on.

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
with a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me;
as he died to make men holy, let us live to make men free;
while God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! While God is marching on.

He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,
he is wisdom to the mighty, he is honor to the brave;
so the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of wrong his slave,
our God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Our God is marching on.

 

[Scott1]

A nation of trigger-happy, self-righteous lunatics.

Now this is just ridiculous.:tsk:

.... I propose that we bomb Sweeden immediately in hopes of winning the "hearts and minds" of the people.

Yes, my friend, it's sad but true.. Americans are viewed that way all over the world... I pray that someday we'll all look at each other as humans first, and let national pride fade away.

 

[Scuba Pete]

Frubals on your head, my friend!

Maybe that will make up for all the Swede "bombshells" they've sent us!

 

[michel]

In my opinion, this country and people have done more for the world than we get credit for. This country has been a leader in all charity through out the world. I find it sad how quickly people forget how much good we have done. I recently was in western France and a very old man who was a boy during the ocupation of France by the Nazi's told me that he thanks each American he sees for what our country did for his. In his house he still had a piece of barbed wire from the american lines.
I know that this man sees the mistakes we make but never will he let the bad overshadow the good in America.
I will always love the United States and I know that I am blessed to live in this country.

I found this poem, its on the statue of liberty and I think it pretty much shows our true attitude.

​

If it wasn't for a mobile American hospital, my father would have had his whole leg amputated by the Germans. He had escaped from capture, and where he had been shot in his foot, had developed gangrene; the Germans had no anaesthetic left and they were only too glad to turn over the wounded allies over to your American mobile unit.​

Thanks to that American surgeon, Dad only lost half of his foot..........

 

[Pah]

Michel,

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cocoon/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.200000003/default.html

By the time of the Civil War "John Brown's Body" had become a very popular marching song with Union Army regiments, particularly among the Colored troops. The Twelfth Massachusetts Regiment, in particular, has been credited with spreading the song's fame on their march to the South, where Confederate soldiers then inverted the meaning of their words and sang, "John Brown's a-hanging on a sour apple tree." The war's rivalry continued to be carried on in music as the northerners then sang in turn, "They will hang Jeff Davis to a sour apple tree."

But it was when Julia Ward Howe visited Washington, DC in 1861 that the tune properly came to be called "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." Howe and her husband, both of whom were active abolitionists [Yankee supporters], experienced first-hand a skirmish between Confederate and Union troops in nearby Virginia, and heard the troops go into battle singing "John Brown's Body." That evening, November 18, 1861, Ward was inspired to write a poem that better fit the music. It began "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord." Her poem, which was published in the Atlantic Monthly in February 1862 soon became the song known as "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."

It wasn't till well after we tamed those rebels that the song came to stand for America in toto.

 

[BUDDY]

Thank you to everyone for their thoughts on this. I am always amazed at the diversity of our country. That diversity is apparent in so many ways, including how we look at ourselves and our nation. This is just one of the many things that defines what the USA is, in my mind. Combining all of your responses pretty much seals the definition of this country, a place where the diversity of the people and their ideas, is as great as the diversity of the land, and yet it all exists in relative peace and harmony. I hope all of you had a great holiday....now get back to work!!!

 

[Sava]

An interesting experiment at first, but now a ridiculous and rather boring exercise in futility.

 

[Xaero4]

Be proud of the USA. We used to be just another place England owned. We fought for our freedom against the greatest army in the world at the time, and we won. We had several advantages, but so did they. America has had some trouble in the past, but overall, be proud, we've come pretty far.

 

[kreeden]

I thought I would pose a siimple question to everyone. When you think of the United States of America, what do you think of? Is it positive or negative?

Simple question ? Hardy simple neigbour . Positive or negative ? Both . Well , the shortest answer would be the words of Pierre Trudeau , who once said " Having America was a neigbour is like sleeping with an elephant . It can be done , but one has to be aware of every little twitch ".

BTW Happy B-day America .