My birthday was yesterday… and it just happens to be 9/11.
For me 9/11 is more than just my regular birthday. It’s not just the day my mother gave birth to me after 13 wonderful hours of labor in 1983. Things have happened over the last several years that was started by the tragedies of 9/11.
On my 18th birthday in 2001 it was the birth of my patriotism. I was always raised to be proud of my country. Why wouldn’t I be? When I was 18 I lived in the best country in the world and no one could justifiably say anything different. I always loved my country, but I hadn’t developed my own sense of loyalty to her yet. Everything I felt and believed came from my family. I believed it because they did.
On my 18th birthday I sat in my first period class and watched the second plane hit the World Trade Center. Instantly I became a true American.
There’s a difference between an American and a true American. An American is someone who lives in this country reaps the benefits and goes through the motions. They don’t see the importance in keeping America the way it was. Americans have forgotten what the American dream really is. They’ve forgotten how proud we should be of our flag and what it stands for. They may have been shocked at the events of September 11, 2001, but they weren’t outraged. They are naïve to the changes happening in our country today. They go through the motions and think things will just work out.
A true American was outraged at the events of September 11, 2001. A true American believes that the American dream has not been completely lost and must be revived for this country to continue to be great. A true American gets chills hearing the national anthem and feels pride when they see Old Glory fly. They remember all of the things the Americans before us sacrificed to make America so great. Most importantly they see how quickly our country has broken down and for lack of a better word… has bred a bunch of pussies.
This morning, September 12, 2012, I woke up to the news that American territory in Libya and Egypt had been violated by people the President of the United States funded. The outrage I felt when hearing the speeches from American officials stealthily justifying the actions of the Libyan people (terrorists is what they truly are) made my blood boil. No matter how offensive a movie posted online may have been it is never offensive enough to take the lives of four innocent people and to attack American soil.
The most disturbing part of this is how many people are saying America asked for it. These aren’t foreigners saying this…these views have been posted all over the internet and TV by so called Americans!
In my outrage I realized they may be right. As Americans, for some reason, we feel the need to help those in need. We give away billions of tax dollars to other countries who hate America and what it stands for. We have become too giving. We help all other countries when we can’t help ourselves.
We have people going to Africa and Asia to adopt babies to give them better lives when there were over 250,000 American children entering foster care in 2011 and 245,000 already in the system in 2011. What is wrong with helping ourselves before helping other people?
I see reports of the size of our military being decreased. Yet we sit back and watch as countries like Iran and North Korea are “secretly” developing nuclear bombs. The last time I checked these people weren’t our friends.
We are just now starting to fight back against people trying to enforce Sharia law in the United States. The worst part about this is our own citizens are fighting against true Americans. Sharia law is not what this country was founded upon and it is not what this country stands for. I have seen the number of news reports and articles on “honor killings” increase over the past several years… and as a female that scares me… as an American I’m angered.
I see signs and hear telephone prompts in Spanish and English. As an American of Hispanic descent I do not want to push 1 for English! We have “flexible” borders to give the lower class Central and South American populations jobs because their country sucks and won’t take care of their citizens. Yet we have millions of unemployed Americans who would be willing to work just about any job and are jobless!
Most importantly… education. We bring people from other countries to America to work. Why? Because they’re “smarter” than American students? What we should be doing is educating our youth to make them the best that they can be. We have the knowledge, but we have become a nation of standardized tests instead of common sense and usable knowledge. We aren’t helping ourselves.
I may seem to be rambling, but my point is we don’t help ourselves. We have abandoned the idea that America is great and we should keep it that way. Instead we seem to be punishing ourselves for the success and patriotism of generations past. We feel the need to the spread the wealth…the problem with this is no one is there to help us.
Who will we turn to if civil war breaks out? Who will help us if we are attacked? Who will feed us if a disaster leaves us with no food or water? Who is adopting the American children who need homes? The answer to those questions is no one. There is no other country that has, can or will be as generous as we have been.
I’ve always been a fan of JFK… so I’ll end with this. In his inauguration speech on January 20, 1961 John F. Kennedy said “My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but what, together, we can do for the freedom of man.”
So now I ask, the day after my 29th birthday and 11 years after my true American birthday… My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but what you can do for yourself.
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