Rejoice in What’s Right with America

Do you know what’s wrong with America? Ask that question of a hundred different Americans and you’ll get a hundred different answers — and that’s what’s right with America! We’re free to criticize our government, our churches, and all our social institutions. Most of the foreigners who seem to hate America so much would never dare to express disapproval of their own governments. It’s not allowed where they live. But we have a Constitution and a legal system that protect our freedom.

We’re free to speak our minds, and we’re free to travel too — to go where we please, when we please. We don’t have to ask permission or explain the purpose for our trips or carry identification cards.

We’re free to choose our own religions, and to convert from one to another without fear of reprisal. Our services don’t have to be sanctioned and our sermons aren’t censored.

We’re free to choose any career we like, to work as much or as little as we want, to keep our earnings, to pass our wealth on to our children, and to contribute to any charity we favor. We’re not coerced or compelled into approved occupations, with the fruits of our labor withheld or “donations” extracted forcibly from us.

We’re free to raise our children the way we see fit, in our own faiths and with our own values. Our children are not wards of the state, spying on us and turning us in for ideological error.

We’re free to own and use firearms to protect our families and possessions. We’re not serfs and slaves dependent on masters to take care of us.

What’s wrong with America? The only thing really wrong with America is that we all spend too much time harping on what’s wrong. We spend too much time complaining about the few minuscule things that are wrong and too little time rejoicing in the many grand and marvelous things that are right. America is a great country, the greatest country on earth, the greatest country in the history of the world. Why shouldn’t we be proud of her? Why shouldn’t we be proud to be Americans?

Your children will learn in school all the things that are allegedly wrong with our country; you can be sure of that. It’s up to you, however, to teach them all the things that are right. Tell your children the story of our war for independence. Recite “Paul Revere’s Ride” for them. Teach them the words to “The Star- Spangled Banner,” to “America the Beautiful,” and to “God Bless America.” Read our Declaration out loud and discuss with them the “self-evident” truths that are catalogued there, along with the list of grievances against the king. Tell them what happened to the men who dared to sign that document, how they gave everything they had for a cause they believed in. Watch “The Patriot” together, at least once a year. Review our Constitution and our Bill of Rights with your children. Make sure they understand and appreciate their liberty. That’s the only way they’ll keep it.