I'm sorry Corey but I've seen so much garbage from there, it just turns me away. Old saying from back in the Vietnam war days :
The latest trend on Twitter is the hashtag "AmericaWasNeverGreat" especially pushed during the 4th of July celebrations. Your thoughts?
Dear Corey,
Over the decades I have learned discernment.
I always assumed the USA embodied total integrity; as a girl I dreamed of fighting for my country, or even just to fold bandages.
I now recognize the potential for greatness, but no longer accept without questioning.
One of the greatest things about America is ... Freedom to travel. That includes not having to ask permission to leave the country.
Another great thing is ... Freedom of speech. People are free to express their opinion. And people are free to ignore each other's opinions.
Those two alone, make America one of the greatest nations in the history of this planet.
Don't get me wrong, my American flag in the front yard is HUGE.
As for your question, I'm pretty sure it started from a black person from Home Depot wearing a certain hat. I mean many conservatives considered the 50s as a great time in American history. Being a black person, would you say that it was a great time for them? Let us not also forget how wonderful dating and subsequent attitudes towards women apparently were in the 1950s.
In other times of "greatness' we committed the genocide of the Iroquois that followed the war of independence. In fact one of the reasons the colonists wanted independence was to war with all the Indian tribes for their land. Still celebrating July 4 though! Because we Americans don't really think about those things. Sadly I bought a terrible IPA brew, tasted too piney.
As such the whole "Make America Great Again" appeals to people down in their bad choices, not because America is actually bad.
As for how I would decipher this statement. America was never great, probably because we're constantly becoming greater! We learn! We improve! People who think otherwise has some serious issues. More people are in college than ever. Our country relies less on brawn and more on brain. We renovate, we invent, we create. Who's keeping the world together? We are. Through social media, through sharing information and knowledge. Back in my day it costs $10 for a few minutes of international calling. These days we use Skype. We can have Donald Trump as President, old underachievers will still be grumpy at younger generations, but a good bulk of us will still continue to make America great everyday.
People are judging America's history based on the mentality that we have today, which isn't fair.
Years ago, slavery was a thing. It was a pretty popular thing. (Still is in some countries today.) But we've improved. We've recognized that you don't own another person.
Sure, slavery was wrong. Expecting women to clean the house and cook and that's it was wrong. But that was the mentality of society back then. We've improved. You don't judge the past of America based on the mentality of today. You judge the today of America with the mentality of today.