Now, this is a very interesting place to start. America = good. We can look at this equation from either side. America could equal other things besides good. It could equal spoiled, or it could equal imperial, or it could equal corrupt, or any one of a number of synonyms for bad.
From the other side it could be that while America is good, Iran is bad, or maybe Pakistan, or even Israel, certainly France.
It seems that America as the term is here used refers to those people and institutions that the authors identify with. This was written by Americans so America is us. This is about healthy self-esteem.
I am concerned though that the identification is with who we are, not with what we do. Everyone is good. Not everyone does good. Some of my actions are good, and some are not so good. This affirmation that America is good seems to minimize the fact that some actions taken by Americans, or even by the nation as a whole, are not always all that good. Some actions are better than others.
It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. Not that cursing the darkness is such a bad thing, it is just that lighting a candle is better. Invading Iraq turns out to not have been such a good thing. That doesn’t make us bad. It just means we had a collective lapse in judgment.
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