The Good Old U.S.A.

     After I was born, in Mexico, we moved back to the U.S..  My father was homesick and dreaming about the American flag.
     I know this is a country that has had problems along the way, the removal of Native Americans, slavery, racism for years and years.  
     Two bad wars, Viet Nam and Operation Iraqi Freedom.  We have become victimized by terrorism.
     Still, all in all, I am happy to be an American.  I cannot criticize another country, and I am sure some have freedoms and liberal laws about certain things that we do not.  Well, I mean there are stricter laws on medications here, which can be bought over the counter in other countries, but here there is a certain amount of socialization of medicine.  
     On the other hand, medications, without Medicare or Medicaid, are expensive here, and Medicaid stopped paying for asthma inhalers, due to the ozone issue.  This may have changed, so if I am wrong, I stand corrected.
     Still, I would rather be American, because the police are more corrupt in some countries.  Of course, there are dirty cops everywhere, but not extremely prevalent here.  
     If the law really goes by the constitution, then that is another great thing.  Reading about the electrocution of Willie McGee in the late forties, makes me feel that constitutional rights did not apply to black people then, even though they were supposed to, even veterans.  Look what happened to Isaac Woodard, who was blinded by the police, and Woodie Guthrie wrote a song about him.
     I am at the part of McGee's trial, accused of raping a white woman, and coerced into signing a confession, after a series of brutal beatings and being put in the hot box, when liberals from New York, many Jewish, came down to Mississippi, to get involved in the protest. Even Pete Sieger came to sing.  Some heckler yelled out, "Dixie," and he knew it.  Folk singers know everything.  He was with a known communist, whose name I have forgotten.
     Still, when you think about it, all countries have bad stuff in their history, as well.  In Europe, there is the holocaust.  England is notorious for past oppression, and tyranny, including the fact we had to fight them for independence, won on July 4, 1776. 
     The night the votes came in, November 2008, and President Obama became the first African American president, I cried with joy, just like Oprah and Jesse Jackson, who were there on TV in Chicago, with everyone else, and cheered the new president and the beautiful first family, as they took the stage, a touching moment in the history of America.
     Happy Fourth of July!