Be Proud To Be American

The other day an American girlfriend of mine talked about how when she traveled in Spain, she dodged any and all debates, hassles, and other potential trouble from the locals by claiming that she was Canadian. “I’m Canadian,” she would tell the inquisitive Spaniard who picked up on her American-sounding accent. I understood her reluctance to have to defend her nationality. Any American who’s ever been abroad knows that the minute they are identified as “American,” they are instantly transformed into AMERICA! Suddenly they represent every U.S. foreign policy decision of the last fifty years and are asked to answer for President Bush, capitalism, our way of life, etc. Even if one’s foreign hosts “like” them, they are grilled to no end by a bevy of smug, anti-American experts on our culture, who have gained all of their knowledge of our country and our people by none other than…you guessed it—Hollywood!

Ready? Americans are loud and obnoxious, nothing but phonies! Why do you all smile all the time and say “hi” to strangers? Americans are superficial slaves of pop culture and money—just look at your TV shows and national “icons.” Americans are ignorant of other cultures, languages, and geography—you all think you own the world and can throw your weight around. Americans are imperialist warmongers. Americans never travel. Americans are all simpletons whose lack of a strong, public education system has made them the laughing stock of the industrialized world. Blah, blah, blah…We’ve heard it all before.

The problem is, most Americans who are bombarded by this litany of charges are usually too stunned—appalled is a better word—to muster an intelligent and rational defense. Well, I’m going to give that defense to you right here and now, and it starts with this: Be proud to be an American!

Americans aren’t loud and obnoxious. We’re a cheerful, confident, and friendly people, with a strong tradition of “neighborliness” and “customer service.” Rena Moore, an Australian friend of mine who lives in London and recently traveled with me in New York, was shocked at how friendly Americans are.

“You would NEVER see people like this in London,” she said. “Nobody smiles or says ‘hi’. People here are amazing!” Even the wait staff at our restaurants blew her away. “You would sit for an hour at a place in Europe as the waiters ignored you,” she commented. “They’ve never heard of customer service in London or Paris!” She later realized that everything people thought about Americans where she’d traveled was wrong.

“We used to always pick out the Yanks on the ‘Tube’ [London subways] because we could hear you all talking and laughing. Now I see that Americans aren’t loud and obnoxious, as we all thought” she pointed out. “It’s just that Europeans never talk on trains or platforms!”

I thought about my own experiences in Europe and saw that she was right. Most Europeans never interacted on trains and subway platforms the way we do here in the States. They minded their own business, kept their noses buried in books or newspapers and kept their mouths shut. I wonder how much of this comes from experience living under the Nazi or Soviet jackboot, where the passenger sitting next to you could have been a Gestapo or KGB agent. Interesting, isn’t it?

The funny thing about the charge that Americans are uncultured boors who never travel, is that it usually is directed at a college-educated Yank who happens to be…traveling! Point that out to your foreign inquisitors next time. Americans travel plenty and many of us have attended some of the most prestigious colleges and universities in the world. Hey, foreigners are coming in droves to our universities, not the other way around! Plus, when we travel and interact with foreigners, and vice versa, we tend to only associate with like-minded, cultured types who travel frequently. Tell your hosts that there for every moo-moo-wearing, Hometown Buffet-eating, uncultured American, there’s just as many ignorant, fat provincials hailing from their own French, English, and German country sides, who couldn’t point out Rwanda on a map or speak their own language properly to save their souls.

As for Americans being greedy, superficial slaves of pop culture and money, look around you. Most of the so-called “Americans” who spend all their time chasing fancy cars, Rolexes, fast cash, and the “bling bling” are actually transplanted foreigners! They are the ones who don’t get what it is to be American; don’t understand our culture. They weren’t raised here in our country, with our values, and therefore don’t have the spiritual and emotional “cushion” to properly absorb the negative aspects of our culture and put it into its proper context. They are the ones who think “America” is about greed, cars, and cash. And who do you think is importing and buying “American culture” up the yin yang? It’s the European, Asian, Middle Eastern, and African folks who can’t get enough of our “stuff,” even while they denigrate it. It’s not us shoving it down their throats.

And Americans as “imperialist war mongers”? Next time, ask your friendly neighborhood foreigner what “empire” the United States ever had? The last time I checked my history books, the British had an empire, so did the Italians, French, Islamists (and they’re still trying to get it!), Germans, Dutch, Japanese, Russians, Spanish—heck! In fact, in the last 100 years, the United States was usually trying to liberate poor people from these empires, as we still are today. And, as Colin Powell once remarked, the only land we ever asked for in return was a little space to bury our dead. The United States doesn’t have an “empire” and we never did.

If your foreign inquisitors still aren’t satisfied, leave them with these points to ponder. The United States has produced the most Nobel Prize winners in every category except literature, and recently just swept all the science prizes. The United States has the most Olympic medals, including Olympic gold medals, than any other country. The U.S. has participated in more humanitarian relief missions, either by supplying aid personnel, military troops, supplies, or money, than any other nation. As one of the youngest nations on Earth, the United States has the oldest, continuous form of government. Our Declaration of Independence and Constitution are the most influential and enduring political documents ever produced, copied or emulated by more countries than any other. Our military power and reach is unsurpassed, and is matched only by our humanitarianism and good will. Our culture sets the tone for the rest of the world, our language is the language of the world, and if that is not enough for them…

…hey, who went to the moon?