Happy Birthday America

Happy Birthday America. I remember the bicentennial, vaguely. I was only six, almost seven, a small town kid. we went to the grade school to see the fireworks. The first time I really remember seeing them. American pride was at a premium, something that's slipping away now.
Everywhere I go, everywhere I look, people are telling me that America needs to become part of the global community. One world. Think globally, act locally.
Read almost any regular publication and you'll quickly learn how much the rest of the world hates and fears us. We seem to be the bullies of the planet.
Yeah, OK. How dare we send you money and food and have our soldiers die to protect you. We are horrible people. We mercilessly allow other peoples to illegaly enter our country, and then provide schools and medical care for them. We ruthlessly send aid to nations in need and then force the natives of those lands to hate and curse us. We unrepentantly don't obliterate nations that threaten us with a few nuclear warheads, when we have more than enough missles and bombs to go around. On top of all that we blindly hold on to our sovrenty, the thing that makes us America.
And yet, as terrible as we are, thousands, nay tens of thousands of people want to come here to live. Why is that? Because we ARE America, the greatest, most powerful nation on earth. If we become like the rest of the world, where will the rest of the world go for help?