‘Proud to be an American’: A Slogan, a Song, and Now a Phrase Without Meaning

“Proud to be an American.” This was a phrase I heard throughout my entire life. And for about one half of my life, I believed in its meaning. However, at nearly 77 years of age, I do not. Don’t think that the trite old line, “if you don’t like it here, move,” can be applied. This is my country, and I love the country that nourished me and supported principles I believed in, with only a few hesitations, for most of my life.

I was proud to recite the “Pledge of Allegiance” at the beginning of every school day. Eagerly, I sang the “Star Spangled Banner” whenever it was played. I believed that the United States was truly the greatest country in the world. Then I grew up.

Facing Reality

It began while I was in the United States Air Force in 1964. My government decided to send our finest young men halfway around the world to fight a war. We did not understand why, and were given no legitimate reason why we were being drafted. North Vietnam had not attacked our country, and we had no evidence of a threat to our nation’s people. As the body bags filled with the remains of young men my age began to arrive home, sorrow progressed into anger.

Slogans such as, “Hey Hey No More, What the Hell are We Fighting For,” rang true to my generation. My faith in the country of our Founding Fathers had faded. I no longer trusted the men and women in Washington who were chosen to lead our country. And from this, my faith in America began to die. The situation worsened with every decade. Lyndon Johnson’s administration played what I call the “generation game.” Our nation became divided by age as protests increased in size and number across America.

My Generation Exposed American Government Corruption

All Americans were forced to face reality at the end of what became the decade of change in our country. On August 15, 1969, the largest protest in American history began in Bethel, New York. About 500,000 young men and women gathered together for the three day music festival known as “Woodstock.”

Nearly 10 months later, on May 4, 1970, a group of Ohio National Guardsmen fired live ammunition into a crowd of students on the campus of Kent State University, killing four and wounding nine. Protests began to spread as the parents of younger Americans joined their children in angry dissent. Vietnam had become a lost cause.

On April 30, 1975, Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese military. All Americans departed from Southeast Asia. However, we left many of our South Vietnamese allies behind. America’s military had lost its second of what would become four unwinnable wars.

Although more than 85,000 American men and women lost their lives, no plausible reason has been given to the American people for the 20-year long war.

Presidential Decay in the 21st Century

On August 8, 1974, President Richard Nixon resigned his presidency, rather than face impeachment and a trial in the Senate. His most egregious crime was ordering the burglary of Democratic National Headquarters located in the Watergate Hotel. Not only was he not punished, he was pardoned for “all and any crimes” by then President Gerald Ford on Sunday, September 8, 1974. He proved that all politicians are above the law.

On this day, all trust I may have had in my government disappeared forever.

Since that day I have been increasingly angry with our government. I voted for Ronald Reagan in 1980, only to learn that his entire campaign was a lie. Early in 1981, he began a three-pronged war on the American people, focused on the working class, Black Americans, and all women. When he left the White House in 1989, our nation was heavily in debt, and unemployment was on the rise. His economic policy of “trickle down economics” had failed miserably. The quality of life for the majority of Americans was in decline.

When President Bill Clinton left office in 2001, the national treasury was experiencing a surplus. However, the administration of the second worst president in history, George W. Bush, left Washington as America neared a second Great Depression, and our military engaged in two illegal and unwinnable wars. The division within our nation had grown.

I was not “proud to be an American.” My government had lied to me and proven that it had no interest in me, my family or any other working class American. Our nation’s motto had become “profit before people.”

Losing Loyalty

“Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.” Mark Twain

After Bush left office, President Barack Obama saved not only our economy, but our nation’s status in the free world. However, when the obese, old, white man who would become the worst president in our nation’s history was illegitimately elected by the Electoral College in 2016, America reached a new low I thought I would never see in my lifetime.

The people are our country, and about 40 percent of them decided to support a fascist whose ambition was the destruction of the nation of our Founding Fathers.

Donald Trump’s “accomplishments” are dividing our nation to a level not seen since the Civil War: he was impeached twice but never received a fair trial in the Senate: his failed economic policy moved our nation into another recession: his failure to lead in the fight against Covid-19 cost tens of thousands of Americans to lose their lives: he stole dozens of classified documents, and lied about possessing them: and he organized, planned, and executed a failed coup on legislature of the United States of America.

Because many members of his party continue to support Trump, I am definitely NOT “proud to be an American.” This is not my America, the nation I cherished as a young man. I doubt I will ever see that country again.

Written by James Turnage

Find my nine novels on Amazon

Sources:

Kent State University: The May 4 Shootings at Kent State University: The Search for Historical Accuracy

Reno Gazette: Journal Submissions

Top and featured image courtesy of Clay Banks‘ Unsplash page – Creative Commons License