Michelle's pride

Apparently there are some people who took offense with Michelle Obama's comments about her pride in America. The AP reports In Milwaukee on Monday, Michelle Obama said: "Let me tell you, for the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country. Not just because Barack is doing well, but I think people are hungry for change." Oh really! Just as anyone in their right mind knew that Hillary Clinton wasn't faking the tears in New Hampshire, we know what Michelle Obama meant. And now the right wing pundits are piling on like a bunch of junkyard dogs. When Obama wins the Democratic nomination this summer, we will hear the Republicans playing Obama's wife's words over and over and over again, coloring her as some kind of unpatriotic traitor and America hater. That's what they do.

Michelle Robinson was 17 years old when Ronald Reagan started his presidency in 1981. George Herbert Walker Bush, as the 41st US president followed in 1989, when Michelle was 25. What's to like about those two? What's to be proud of? William Jefferson Clinton was the 42nd president from 1993- 2001. The man from Hope, Arkansas brought hope back to America during the 42nd administration, but beyond those years and since 2002, the George W Bush adminstration, not so much.

Michelle Obama said, for the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country. Perhaps she was overstating, or perhaps, as her husband said "Statements like this are made and people try to take it out of context and make a great big deal out of it, and that isn't at all what she meant," "What she meant was, this is the first time that she's been proud of the politics of America," "Because she's pretty cynical about the political process, and with good reason, and she's not alone. But she has seen large numbers of people get involved in the process, and she's encouraged."

It's all politics and people are tired of it; tired of the accusations, the misstatements and the mean spiritedness. Cindy McCain, standing by her man, was trotted out onstage to counter Michelle's comment "I'm proud of my country, I don't know about you, if you heard those words earlier." and "I have, and always will be, proud of my country," Nice, Cindy. Living in your world must be pretty.

I wish I could be proud of my country now, but I'm not. There are too many things in this country that were broken intentionally by people who had too much power and too much greed. We have lost so much of what makes America great. We have lost our moral standing and our good name in the world and the bar on the right and wrong scale has been lowered. So much of what once represented America is gone and forgotten, left to another day.

Where is the pride in knowing that nearly 4000 US flag covered caskets have come home to America from the sands of Iraq from an uneccesary war? Where is the pride in knowing that the same war has left countless numbers of dead, misplaced and wounded Iraqi's? How many children have been left behind in America? How much fearmongering can one country take and for how many years? And why, why, why?

Even though I don't find much to be proud about America these days, I do have hope that we can and we will find American pride once again. November 2008 anyone?