I Am America - I Will Not Fall

A friend on Facebook said I am down on America. He suggested that I post positive facts about our country, and was sure I could find many. In the past two months, I've essentially been called unpatriotic, been cyberbullied both on Facebook and in text messages on my phone, and called a terrorist for supporting OWS. Here is my reply:

I wonder where we'd be if our founders had only written and spoken about all the wonderful things about their country, England?

"Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things." - Winston Churchill

I am not down on America. It is because I have a deep love for my country and its Constitution and Bill of Rights, that I don't believe in turning a blind eye to its foibles. How can we improve if we don't truly see ourselves? We all already know the many great things about our country, and I teach these things to my students. However, as an adult American, outside of my classroom, I have a duty to my country to be a responsible, active citizen. I am an educator who is looking to improve what we do in our country. We can learn from and work with each other. As an educator, I can tell you that teachers have been scapegoated and demonized by politicians and journalists as the cause of the ills of our country. I do not accept this mantle. I will not give up on my country by glossing over the things we need to improve, nor will I, as an American and an educator, accept the status quo that allows 1 in 4 American children to live in poverty.

"The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything." - Albert Einstein

"It is an affront to treat falsehood with complaisance." - Thomas Paine

We may not agree on everything. We may not share each other's vision. Yet we remain one people...one country...America. In this, I find hope that we will learn to work together for the sake of our country, our freedom, and our future.

"Gutta cavat lapidem; non vi, sed saepe cadendo."

"A water drop hollows a stone; not by force, but by falling often."

(Main phrase is from Ovid, Epistulae ex Ponto IV, 10, 5.[12]; expanded in the Middle Ages)

The first two YouTube videos are by Krista Branch, and the third is by Miley Cyrus. I do not own the rights to these videos and intend no copyright violation.