God Bless America

I love America. I love it, love it, love it.

I love that I can have opinions, that you can speak your opinions. Political, religious  etc. That we can talk about them in either a respectful or condescending way, and still be safe. (although I despise the condescending/know it all way)That disagreeing with or disliking a particular political idealogy with not get you imprisoned or murdered. That as a woman I have the right to vote. And am considered a peer, an equal. Seriously, when you look at a lot of the world, that is HUGE.

I love that we are not a dictatorship. That we have checks and balances. We have a president, a house, a Senate and a judicial system. None with more power than the next, just different power. I think we forget that sometimes

I love that I can go to the store down the street and get anything I want. No standing in line for hours for a loaf of bread or wondering if pestulance will ruin my only food source. I have the luxury to be annoyed by modern American conveniences like waiting 2 minutes for the next gas pump to open up or joke about first world problems.

I love that in an emergency people pull together to take care of each other. Regardless of what the government does, Americans take care of each other. Marathoners inconvenienced by a cancellation and not being able to do what they've trained months for, instead put their energies into Sandy relief. People are still rebuilding and working on the gulf coast. After tornadoes. Fires. Oil spills. etc. At Christmas time in my county alone, over 2,000 underprivileged children are sponsored by private donors so that they can feel special and to ease one burden from their parents.

I love that a child from a single parent home can become president. We've had 2. America continues to create a climate where anyone can dream a little, and become something. Now, its not perfect by any means. I still see how poverty is destructive, but here, as compared to say Mexico or Sudan, a poor kid has a chance to dream a little bigger and see others who have done so and succeeded.

I love that I feel safe. And there are degrees of safety. I won't go run at night.And there are pockets of unsafe places. Places you won't catch me driving through if at all possible. but I can safely walk in my neighborhood during the day. I don't have to worry about a gang of guirillas going on a rampage through Antioch. I don't have to worry about invasions from the country to the north or to the south of me. I don't have to worry that the government will despise my or my neighbors ethnicity and decide to systematically dispose of it.

Are there things I would change, of course. I could write loads of blog posts about that. But I CAN IF I WANT TO AND THERE WILL BE NO REPERCUSSIONS (excepting your unfavorable Facebook comments) . Complain if you will after this election or celebrate if you will. This is not about who won or who lost. Because I think America will be okay either way. Its not about who the president is, its who the people are. I'm kind of fond of Americans too. And American values.

I just want to celebrate America for a moment. I can't think of a better place to live.