November 14, 2009
HOW DID YOU GET SO PATRIOTIC?
Blogdaughter Tammi of Tammi's World got asked that question and gave a good answer. Comments are closed over there, so I'll answer over here.
Well, growing up, I never noticed anything about this country that particularly sucked, so I always thought America was pretty cool. The question of NOT liking my country never crossed my mind.
The notion that America was actually GREAT and thus worthy of a deep and abiding love... probably somewhere in 1988 when I was 21, and in my 3rd of 6 years in the Navy. I was just about to embark upon my first real visit to a foreign nation: The Philippines.
At a "cultural briefing" before setting us loose on the town, they explained about a quaint Philippine law: unjest vexation.
They explained it thusly: if you're in a bar, and you piss off a local so bad that he breaks his camera over your head, he's not guilty of assault. YOU are guilty of "unjust vexation" and have to buy him a new camera.
Which was the most fucked-up thing I'd ever heard of, and led me to conclude that America truly rocks.
What's YOUR story?
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