Patriotism

I love my country the way I might love a child. I have a soft spot for it, I want it to succeed, and when I see it doing something wrong, I do what I can to make it stop.

Lex

 

I like my country (Australia). There are clearly some things that I think we can do better, but there are a hell of a lot of things that are wicked awesome

Awesome:
The weather

Freedom of Speech
Over here, people regularly pay out the government or politicians. In fact a lot of news coverage goes to politicians paying other politicians out. It's rather entertaining. In contrast, does anyone remember what happened to the Dixie Chicks when they said that they were ashamed that George W Bush was from Texas? For lack of better terms, they were ostracised from the music industry by patriotic Americans.

Our health system
I've needed to get a kidney transplant and it's being done in the public system. Never have I felt more taken care of in my life and I think I've had to pay like 200 bucks all up. Consider what it might cost in America. I'm thinking thousands of dollars

Close knit society
This is more related to Adelaide, but if I walk down the main street, I am guaranteed to see at least a couple of people that I know. And if I go to a party and meet someone new, it is almost guaranteed that I will know them through friends. Now don't think of Adelaide of a country bumpkin town, but it is relatively small when compared to Sydney or Melbourne, and I like that

The feeling that, if you work hard, you can achieve your goals

Separation of Church and State

Not so Amazing
Our Gay Rights
Yeah, these suck. No marriage, not adoption, not sure about military, and only in the last week have we had civil unions in ACT. We are slowly making progress. But I mean slowwwwww. Like snail slow. And that sucks. But hey, at least it's not like some places where being gay is a crime punishable by death. And we do have a lesbian federal politician

Racism
We can't deny that internationally, I think we are known for being racist, and that also sucks. The genocide of Aboriginals, The Stolen Generation, The White Australia Policy (which only ended in the 70s), the Cronulla Riots, bashings of Indian students, the list goes on. I mean, we may be "multicultural", as our government continues to say, but that doesn't stop a section of our population being ignorant dickwads that have backwards views.

Crap Technology
Seriously, the technology here, especially internet, is crap compared to other countries. In a recent experiment on Hungry Beast, it was shown that carrier pigeons and driving were faster ways of transferring data than the internet. Anecdotal as this is, it still shows that internet in the Outback is crap and needs an update. So when's this national broadband plan starting, Ruddy?

Hmm, it was genuinely difficult for me to write the list of not so great, cos I really do love this place. But yeah, despite the crap parts, I think this country rocks. Wouldn't mind heading over to Canada, though. That place seems to have it going on

 

i think i could answer that with the same posts i've already made so i won't reiterate. haelmarie put it in great words too.

it's just an unfortunate consequence of having to rely on satellites due to not having access to a multitude of land cables.... it's unavoidable. The real problem is with our geographical isolation, not with the lack of technology, per se.

I live in Cronulla. That was just..... ridiculous. A lot of morons live in this area unforunately.

I don't think we're doing that badly though. I think a lot of the perceived racism is actually due to the unusually high rate of cultural clashes we have in this country, which in turn are due to the sheer number of immigrants we receive from non english speaking nations. Given the number of cultural frontiers we harbour within such a small population, I think we're doing great. I'd be interested in seeing the results of a well conducted study of a very large sample of australian attitudes regarding racism, compared to similar studies done elsewhere.

 

I'm not sure...I mean, I'm pretty patriotic, but atm, I'm not happy with the way religion and government is going against what our Founding Fathers laid down when they wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights...

 

I would if it were for reasons I think are justifiable. AKA NOT the war in Iraq. I'd do it for the people so they can live good lives. I would not likely do it for other countries because I have not soaked up their sources, used their programs, and other various things I take advantage of that I do not even realise I use, all given to me because I was born here. My country is my responsibility, we the people are responsible for how it is run and for what kind of government we want/how we want the government running our country.

 

I'm going to preface my next statements with the clarification that I will do almost anything for anyone who asks for help. I don't care if they are family, friends, or strangers. I think if someone needs help, they should receive it. In much the same way, I care for the people of not only my country, but of the world. I'm a citizen of the world, along with the US.

However, I will never fight for the US. Ever. You can forget dying for the US. I think that there are better ways to resolve issues than to go to war and kill other people. The entire concept of war baffles me. It's essentially a conquest to see who can kill more people, or at least bring them into submission. And the people that are fighting do not get the benefits of the war. They are merely pawns in this screwed up civilization. They are almost purely a statistic in the end.

If I were to be forced to fight, I don't know what I'd do. I could never kill another being. I have enough issues with killing a spider or even a gnat. Why would I kill another human being for the sake of an entire country? What does influence does this one person have on an entire country?

I think there is no need for a big government. We should all look out for each others. Everything doesn't have to be divided and broken into teams. This may seem idealistic or a Utopian sort of world, but I for one think that it is the right way to live.

You can call me socialist if you want. I don't find anything wrong with it. I think the US tries to instill fear in its citizens by using key words like "socialism," "communism," and "patriotism" in order to deter any deviancy.

Sure, the US was united to break off from the UK. If the US failed, those founding fathers would have been considered deviants and rebels. They would have been frowned upon. We could still possibly be part of the UK, and then someone would be demanding that I be a patriot of the UK. Yes, I'm thankful for the rights I have. However, I disagree that people who have to die in order to retain these "inalienable" rights.

Ok, this is a long rant and I've lost track of my initial point. :end rant:

 

Amen.

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I have not seen ONE suggestion in this thread that flag burning should be illegal, only opinions ON flag burning.

 

no but as an issue, it's been brought to the federal court on 4 separate occasions, IIRC.

 

Yes, but clearly no one in this thread was advocating for that.

 

well yeah. but i think the reason it's being brought up is that it's been in and out of the courts for ages, so it's a pertinent issue even if no-one here is advocating it.

 

And I never said anyone was. I brought it up because one poster said "I abhor anyone who supports flag burning" (and which you said 'Amen' to). So I said I do support flag burning (as protest), and gave rationale why I thought Americans should want it legal. I hope I'm not abhorred

 

haha yeah, sounds like i might be on the abhorred list too

 

Heh, don't worry, you get used to it . And once again, I'm on an abhorred list...

 

I'm patriotic. Even though there are things about this country that I don't like, I still think people in the U.S. (even LGBT people) have a lot more rights and freedoms than people in other countries. Sure, we don't universally have the right to marry and you can still be fired for being gay in many states. And you can still be kicked out of the military for being openly gay. But we still have a HELL of a lot more freedom to be ourselves than gay people in, say, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Jamaica, Uganda and other countries in which homosexuality (esp. sodomy) is a crime (often punishable by imprisonment or death) and/or where you have an excellent chance of being beaten or killed by mobs if you come out. Yes, LGBT hate crimes occur here too, but at least there's a federal law against them, and I think the DADT repeal and ENDA have a good chance of passing this year as well. So that, and America is still the "land of opportunity" for many people- there are many who have immigrated here and have made something of themselves when they had nearly nothing. Plus, where else in the world can you find such a diverse population of people who all claim one national identity- that in and of itself is just really awesome!

 

I'd have to say, no. I'm really not.

 

I know America has many many flaws but I love my country and wouldn't change it for anything so yes I am Patriotic

 

depends which country you refer to, If you're talking about Northern Ireland, it's a cool wee country but feels more like the suburbia of the UK... Only with more terrorists So I'm not really patriotic, We did win the world cup once, cool song about that too (we're not Brazil we're Northern Ireland) but If you're talking about the UK in general I'm really patriotic, in fact I'm going to join the RN (Royal Navy, best in the world) so I can show my patriotism with 100,000 tonnes of patriotic aircraft carrier OOH YEAH BABY

 

the concept of patriotisem has little meaning in america.

no way to get around it.

the founding fathers base it on the englightenment movements,then the bigotts and assholes took over and tried to rewrite the history so they can justify racisem, homophobia, sexism, and murder.

I am patriotic for the values the founding fathers believed in. not what ignorant power hungry jackasses have turned the country into.

 

Yeah. I am super patriotic. I almost always write in those little "About Me" boxes that I am patriotic. New Zealand is just a great place to live!

 

Nopes. I'm a citizen of the world, like Socrates said. I do have a soft spot for Europe and the European Union. I love the idea of 27 (so far) countries all united but being different.