Not so Proud to be an American

Why would I be "Proud to be an American"?? Because I was lucky enough to be born here?? As the title link of this Blog would suggest, Canadians are not "Proud to be Americans", per se, they might be proud to be Canadian, by the same misdirected logic that we use to be "Proud to be American". Maybe some are ashamed to be Americans for what the term suggests about them. Are Mexicans "Proud to be Americans"?? Their name for people from the good old USA is "Norte Americano". Do they exclude Canada in this description, or is it a general term that applies to "Those mostly white skinned pompous fat-headed, misguided people who live north of the Grand State of Mexico"?? And what about all those people who live South of Mexico. What do they think about being American. Are you "Proud to be an American" because they were the people who imported all those Black Africans into this country to work as Slave Labor on the plantations and in the big cities building all those "Proud to be an American" symbols, like the American Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. and the Washington Monument?? Are you "Proud to be an American" because you were descended from one of those Slave Laborers?? Are you "Proud to be an American" because you swam the Rio Grande River or came across in tiny boats from Cuba to find a better life in the "Land of the Free"?? Are you "Proud to be an American" because you are descended from one of the people who were here before the white skinned people came along and pushed them out of their homeland and forced them to live on Reservations in areas considered to be "no good for anything useful"??

Or, let's take it to another level. Are you "Proud to be a Minnesotan", because that is where you were born, or are you "Proud to be a Minnesotan" because your parents returned to Minnesota after living in California for a few years, to raise their kids in the same abject poverty they lived in before they left Minnesota for the easy money in California?? Or are you "Proud to be a Minnesotan" because your parents, who met and had all their children in Washington, returned to Minnesota while you were still in high school for the simpler life there?? Or are you "Proud to be a Minnesotan" because your Mother didn't want you, so you were adopted by a "Christian Family" in Minnesota out of the LSS Adoption clinic where you were born??