Ray Charles Was Right; America is Beautiful

If her ideals are misguided, if her politics be jaded and her values be tainted, at the very least, you can be thankful that Lady Liberty and her children aren’t driven to fanatical violence.

Just check out these headlines from the last hour.

Deadly Bomb Hits Market in Pakistan – New York Times

Eight killed in Kabul suicide bomb blast in diplomatic quarter – Times Online

And that’s just two headlines within the last hour. Don’t get me wrong, every minority in this country should be allowed five minutes on nationally broadcast television to read prepared remarks about what they don’t like about America. The history of extortion, division and separatism is wide enough that everybody should at least know how everybody without a voice really feels.

But to her credit, America is decent enough to ingrain within her citizens that radicalism leading to violence should be less than a passing thought. I know a few people who have known other people who have survived a bomb attack or political coup by military force. Neither of those people were born in America. They came over here shortly thereafter those incidents.

And if we can cut through all of the cynicism to at least acknowledge that, no matter race, religion or creed, it’s very unlikely that we’ll be snatched out of our homes, killed, tortured or separated from family on those pretenses alone. America deserves a little credit for that, because given the emotional climate within her borders and outside of them, that could easily be the case.

Maybe it’s apathy, maybe it’s fear. Maybe it’s because Americans deep down believe in some sort of equity for all people; at the very least, in their right to be alive.

The biggest curse in American culture is selectivity; selective history, selective opportunities, selective standards for ethical treatment. But the one thing that they do not select is for terrorism to be a regular part of life, and for that, we all should be flag waving patriots.