The following article was inspired by a recent posting about arrogant americans:
There is nothing new in old Europe viewing Americans as arrogant. Europe has a long history of doing so, and I, as an American, wholeheartedly agree that we Americans are indeed an arrogant bunch-- even to a fault: i.e., every American who died on foreign soil in defense of the liberty and freedoms of some other fella, who was a complete stranger no less, might be considered by some a fault.
It was indeed an arrogant thing when the founding fathers of America challenged the old order of Europe, and declared the ideal of individual liberty, born out of the rugged wilderness of the new world. Yes, it was indeed an arrogant thing of Americans to declare independence from the colonial rule of England, and promulgate that We Americans “hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal….” Yes, t was indeed an arrogant thing when the great American patriot, Patrick Henry, declared in March, 1775, in The War Inevitable, that: “ I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
Yes, it is indeed true that We Americans are an arrogant bunch. So I ask the world: in light of all of America’s conceded arrogance, is the world indeed a better thing-- place?
Being merely of this earth, I don’t know the answer to that question, but I do know that for me America is a noble thing indeed. So while I will plead guilty to being born in a Nation of arrogant men& women, I will not ever concede that we are selfish with our arrogance. Just go ask the living relatives of 19,000 arrogant Americans who died in Europe’s war at the battle of the bulge, and every other American who has arrogantly died for some other guy he doesn’t even know. It is not we Americans who are arrogant, but our ideals that are arrogant. Freedom is not only an arrogant thing, but is also a noble thing indeed. I for one am so very grateful that the consciousness that I am was born here in America. My only regret about being born an American is that I only wish I was born 125 plus years earlier when the West was still wild, and rugged individualism carried the day.