Home of the Free

        For those of you that follow this blog, you may (or may not) have noticed that I have had a rather sour disposition lately. This could be caused by many things, I read a lot and make an effort to follow the news, and as we all know, the news mostly reports the negative side of mankind, and as hard as I try to not let the outside world affect me personally it is hard to shut out everything.  This is of course only a theory. However, regardless of all that, recently I have been reminded of something that made me re-evaluate my current attitude. I remembered that I am an American. Don't get me wrong, I will be the first person to express my opinions on the current state of America, whether it's our increasing unemployment rates, our failing social security system, or even Steve Jobs quest to take over the world. side-note: it's only time until the iPod becomes self aware. Despite all these things, I am still proud to be an American, and I will tell you why. I have spent just enough time outside the United States to understand that all types of societies have their own brand of problems. I have been to countries where it is accepted as part of their culture to act in a way that in America would have you imprisoned, or worse. I am not saying that the U.S. is immune from these types of problems, of course we aren't. However, the main difference that I have noticed is that although we may have similar types of problems, Americans as a whole accept these things as wrongdoing and do what they can to stop it, or at least slow it down. I know that it is very simple to look only at the negatives in our society today, we are bombarded by it, but if you can, please sometime this week take a moment and recognize the good that you have in your life, and ask yourself, would you have the things that you are grateful for, if you lived on another part of this planet. My daughter just celebrated her second birthday, and although I could not be there, which made me terribly sad, I was beyond joy to know that my family lives in a country where in ten years my beautiful daughter will not be sold into prostitution and in four years, my six year old son won't be expected to carry an assault rifle to protect himself. These are things that we might take for granted, because we are more concerned with the release date of the iPad 2. But I urge you, don't take for granted that you live in a country whose leaders are genuinely concerned for your well being. No matter what you may think about the U.S. Government or the Military, I promise you, no matter what you think the agenda might be, they are doing a good job. I chose a career path that forced me to decide whether or not I truly believed in America and what she stands for, and you know what, I do. I believe that beyond anything else, America stands for people. It stands for the man on the street protesting war, just as it stands for the servicemen that have died in that war. It stands for my family, just as it stands for yours. And just as a father will protect his children from harm, I believe that these United States of America will protect it's citizens.   

Thanks for Reading
-Phillip