When and how did it become cool to be unpatriotic? All across America people seem to be competing against each other to see who could show the most contempt for their country. What is so terrible about the United States of America that makes so many of its own citizens feel the need to show so much disdain to the country that offers them so much?

The ingratitude that so many people who live and prosper here have towards the country is a phenomenon that is truly perplexing. The sheer disdain that so many people have towards the country is absolutely mind boggling. All across the country in college campuses students are burning the American flag because they say it is a symbol of hate, racism, and bigotry. They have slogans like “America was never great,” F**** your flag, some symbolically use the flag as a toilet rag, and others state that they have no reason to be proud of  America.

How is it that people born in the freest country ever, where people have the opportunity to do so much for themselves to make their dreams become a reality, could have so much scorn for their own country? These people cite all that is wrong with the country, and they point to all that they perceive to be unjust as reasons to deride the nation that has been so blessed by God, and in which they have the privilege to live. 

All across the country there are people embracing the status of victim, and assuming the mantle of the aggrieved so that they can then say what an awful country America is. Being a victim is now a badge of honor to many. This stuff is absolutely amazing to watch.

Even some people who come here from other countries and live lives they never would have dreamed possible in their own homelands get in on the America bashing game. Despite the fact that America is always working to improve, and make the country a better place for all of its residents and citizens, all that you ever hear about from some citizens is how terrible a country this is.

It seems that for many, the only way to appreciate their country is for it to be perfect. Many of them have been fed a steady diet of anti-American sentiment from their earliest days, and on colleges campuses, to the point that America hatred is firmly entrenched in their hearts. Even as they breathe the air of the freest country in the history of the world, and they reap the benefits of being Americans, they complain that they are oppressed, and deprived.

So many refuse to celebrate what they do have, but complain incessantly about what they don’t have. Instead of being thankful for all of the mechanisms that are in place to address injustice, people complain that injustice exists. Instead of celebrating the many opportunities that there are for people to climb out of poverty, they complain that there is poverty.

This pattern can be seen in the way that many of them talk about America’s past. When they talk about slavery it is always in the context of how evil America was, but they always fail to give America any credit for being one of the first nations to abolish the institution of slavery. They remain cynical and refuse to see the tremendous good that America has done in the world.

So many people have no knowledge of what the world was like before the American experiment. They think that the version of the world that we have today always existed, but what they fail to realize is that before America the world was a totally different place.

America introduced to the world the concept of Government of, for and by the people. America instituted a form Government that stated our rights come from God and not Governments. It is only as America became a nation, that the freedoms we know, and enjoy today eventually became commonplace around the world.

It took time to get to the place where we are today, socially, and politically. From the birth of the nation to today, America has always worked to improve itself, and as the country has become more enlightened it has embraced the principles of an enlightened society.  She is still not perfect, but the truth is that no country in the world is perfect, just as there are no perfect individuals.

Society will always reflect the people who make it up. The imperfections that do exist in any society are not necessarily what defines the society, but what and how they address those imperfections to become better is the mark of a really decent society.

Has there ever been a nation so blessed, where such a large number of its people quite frankly are not grateful for, neither do they know or understand what they have?