Note from Steve: This is an essay submission for Steve’s Great American Essay Challenge. These will run nightly for as long as there are submissions. Submit your own to earn a TNB coffee mug and maybe even more.
The essays will remain anonymous until the end of the challenge. Please do not claim this essay until we are ready for that reveal.
The Great American…
America provides an amazingly good life for the ordinary person as opposed to almost anywhere else on earth.
We can bitch, whine, groan and complain (as we are wont to do, freely, as is our right) but at it’s core, we live in a wonderful country. The water is more or less safe to drink, the air is by and large breathable, and we have medical care just down the road if it is not. Or we can sue, or protest.
The roads are mostly paved, and everything works, more or less. With the flip of a switch, we have lights. If we cannot sleep we have infomercials to bore us into slumber, 24/7, or CNN. We can walk to the pantry and get a cookie or even flush a toilet at all hours, in our own homes no less!
We can complain freely about the government or it’s officials, and often we do, without the fear of incarceration or the immediate death of our families. But even they (government) are not as corrupt as in a lot of places (even though we sometimes swear they are). We can even protest our government on the internet at all hours. As long as we stay within the boundaries of our laws, we are free to do most anything we wish.
We have conveniences that are unheard of in other countries. Every child has access to an education whether we think it is adequate or not. We can go to the corner store, in our own cars, in the middle of the night no less, to resolve a mere craving. Think “a bottle of Coke” or popcorn, Twinkies, chips, beer, or even diapers, if needed. Then we can bitch about the prices to whomever will listen.
Hot dogs and apple pie are at our finger tips. America, the land of opportunity where even the poor people are fat. We can move about freely. Or waddle, as the case may be.
Overall, we are a spoiled nation but that, in and of itself, makes America great. We are unique. We can aspire to greatness in even the worst of times. The land of the free, the home of the brave. I would live no where else and am eternally grateful that I was born here.
Bottom line… A Great American, whether born here or not, realizes these things and cherishes them while trying to make a better place for future generations… IMHO.
