When people today say they are pro-America or believe that the United States is the freest, most prosperous nation in the history of the world, they are often met with the hysteria from those who are vehemently opposed to that certain point of view, claiming that the U.S. is racist, bigots, white supremacists.
Case in point: In mid-July, Chris Pratt made headlines after he was photographed wearing a T-shirt with the U.S. flag and in front of the flag is a coiled snake and the saying, “Don’t Tread On Me.” The actor got raked over the coals for simply wearing the shirt. Yahoo UK originally wrote an article with the headline, “Chris Pratt criticized for ‘white supremacist’ T-shirt.” Later, after some backlash, they corrected the headline to “Chris Pratt criticized for T-shirt choice.”
The initial headline for the story claimed somehow that the snake and the writing were representative of white supremacy even though the coiled snake and the writing are derived from the Gadsden flag, which rose to prominence during the American Revolution as a symbol of freedom to colonists who wanted independence from Great Britain.
Colin Kaepernick managed to get Nike to not release shoes with the Betsy Ross flag (the flag with the 13 stars) because, according to him, the flag was a symbol of racism and bigotry.
Being pro-America is believing in the set of values that this nation was founded on. Those values were clearly stated in the Declaration of Independence–that we are endowed by our Creator with natural rights, those being: Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
It is believing that the government cannot grant us those rights because they are given to us by a higher power and that the government’s duty is to protect them. It is believing that we are currently living in the freest, most prosperous nation in the history of humanity. It is acknowledging this country’s faults: slavery, Jim Crow, the KKK, segregation, the Red Scare, Japanese internment during WWII, etc., and realizing that we have time and time again sought to correct them.
There is a reason why millions of people from all over the world seek to move to the U.S., whether it be legally or illegally. They recognize that the U.S. has and still is the land of opportunity.
Ruben Hernandez Jr.
History sophomore
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