Land of the Free Home of the Brave

I read a blog from a guy in another country regularly.Today I was reading his blog and he said he was going to go to bed and fall asleep watching the 9/11 video. He said he has tried 8 times to watch it but always falls asleep before the end. He said he knows how it ends, plane hits building,building collapses...he like yaddi yaddi yaddied the first attack on American soil! What kind of video is out there anyways? I mean do you get those videos off the TV like the "Girls Gone Wild" videos? Have we become the world's ultimate reality show! I cannot even think about 9/11 without getting very upset. I remember the first few months after the attack feeling sick to my stomach all the time.I had never ever experienced anything so bad.Now first off I realize that you can write whatever you want in your blog and if people don't like it then they can quit reading it. I am all for freedom of speech being an American. I often wonder how the rest of the world views America.The following is what followed after reading this bloggers comment and the way it got be to thinking.The whole 9/11 massacre was for me, the one defining moment, in my generation at least, of when I realized what it meant to be an American. At that moment we were not black or white or republican or democrat or blue collar or white collar or mexican or jewish or muslim or aggie or longhorn or cowboys or businessmen or texan or yankee. We were all those individual things and at the same time we were a part of a collective if you will. The fact that we are all of these things and individually the other things too is what makes us American.Our country may not be perfect Lord knows this.But we have the ability to change and shape our country into what we want it to be. Our foreign policy may suck and believe me I have a problem with the invasion of Iraq as do many Americans. I think we should definitely work hard to figure out how to get our guys home safe and sound. And yea, we do seem to spend too much time butting into the feuds that have been going on longer than the Hatfield and McCoys.But,when these other countries around the world need help whether it be in the form of food, shelter, medical, whatever America's big shoulders are there to prop you up. And God forbid that another country, one of our allies should ever have to suffer something as horrific as 9/11, who would have their back? That's right say it say my name AMERICA!!! So, even though I am and never have been a Bush supporter and I have issues with the way this country is run. The fact that I am an American gives me the right to criticize my government openly without fear of retribution. And if you were here on American soil you could too. That's how we roll!