If your not going to root for the team, get the hell out of the stadium.

The past couple of days have made it another rough news week. General Motors finally declared bankruptcy after rumors circulated for months, three people were found dead in an apartment here in Indianapolis, and the “war” is still going strong in the Middle East. If it was not for the comedic stylings of Conan O’Brien I don’t think I would even turn on my local channels.

The catch twenty-two of it is that if these stories were not depressing and tragic it would not constitute as news. You can’t sell a newspaper with a headline that reads All is Well. It is necessary to keep people informed of everything going on in our nation and our cities and towns, otherwise that would be promoting ignorance and I wouldn’t know what neighborhoods to not walk through after seven in the evening. The major downside is that these stories influence a negative perception of our communities and our country.

There are two things I learned while bartending in college; how to cut a pineapple and never talk about religion or politics with people you want to remain on good terms with. I think I can honestly say I am a very open minded person, if someone has an opinion I don’t see eye to eye on I don’t feel a need to explain why they are wrong and why my beliefs are so much better. That is one of the benefits to being an American that you can believe and preach anything you want (within reason) without fear of prosecution from the government. The only time I falter on this is when I hear people bad mouthing the United States of America.

Beginning at the age of five we all memorized the Pledge of Allegiance, possibly one of the most important things you will ever learn in your life. In reading this I hope you can recite it to yourself, if not please look it up. From that point on in our lives we have sworn an oath to our country that we will honor and respect it. On a day to day basis I consider the state of the union and contemplate on what I think should be done. Badmouthing our country is not one of those strategies.

I’m sure someone is thinking how I do not see the irony that the first amendment gives us the right to say whatever we want and it is in our bill of rights to slander America if we so choose but seriously that is probably not what colonist had in mind. I am sure they also didn’t plan on the right to bare arms to be interpreted for all of Compton to be packing heat as well, but that is just how it is.

Like in most situations morale in the United States falls into the grass is always greener category. If you start talking healthcare people talk about how Universal Healthcare exist everywhere but here, and how great Canada is. Kids in high school bitch about the drinking age and complain they don’t live in Germany so they can drink beer when they are fourteen. Once you get all the “green” advocates going they will tell you America has ruined the environment with pollution and landfills; if you go to other countries you can see how well they have preserved their forests and streams, it’s not all cement and buildings like in the states. Got it, it’s not perfect over here, but it beats the shit out of Somalia.

There are a million little things to nit pick at in the daily life of an American, but they range from things to the cable being out and the price of gas going up to three or four dollars and how expensive that makes it to fill up the SUV. I have never complained that I am hungry because I have not eaten for three days. Things are not perfect in the U.S. and they never will be. No country is perfect, you can take a vacation and everyone will tell you how much they love living in Berlin or New Zealand, from the cobblestone streets to the gorgeous beaches these places lack the one thing we have here and that is the American spirit. In no other country do people have the ambition and perseverance as we do in America. Is our country actually in that bad of shape; for Christ sakes, slavery use to be legal here? Slaves, I mean really; people use to OWN people, I’d say things are getting progressively better from that point.

I think we need to take a long hard look in the mirror and realize how lucky we are to be American citizens. We are in a rut right now, and to keep bitching about it is not going to drag us out of it. During World War II people were donating their pots and pans to help the troops produce metal for bullet casings and other needs. The soldiers here are told the war they are fighting is all “blood for oil” and murder. These are American soldiers risking their lives for your freedom, show some damn respect. This country needs to come together and pull ourselves up to be the superpower of yesteryear. I’m not saying that to complain is unpatriotic, there is a lot of problems that need sorted out in our country. I guess I just wanted to point out that we live in a society that what you put in is what you get back and we need to remember that if we are all working towards a goal to benefit our future things are going to turn out a whole lot better then just sitting on the sidelines talking about what someone else did to screw things up. In the words of Trey Parker; America, fuck yeah.