Watching Pete Seeger sing the uncensored This Land is Your Land two days ago; seeing my confidence reinforced every time I see Obama behave in a confident yet realistic, charming yet frank, Presidential yet familial manner…hearing his speeches that strike a chord in my memories of growing up reading about Lincoln and the Founders and their yet-to-be-realized yet brilliant ideals of freedom and harmony—it’s good to be an American, again.

[Hopefully we won’t have to spend the entire 8 years cleaning up and rebuilding from the destruction of the last 8 years...as we know it does take longer to create and nurture than to destroy—but I’d rather see Obama create a better society than merely clean up the damage of the past Administration. Guess I, all of us, will have to pitch in and find a way to help.]

I wrote this little essay on July 4, well before it was clear who’d be our next President, when we were still mired in the Bush Era, when it seemed to be necessary to defend and explain the fact that I had always loved my country…and why. I’m not a patriot because I’m a native—I’m a patriot because I love the values that, while never yet perfectly realized—have defined and shaped the unique American path through history. I tried to describe some of those values here.

 

Okay, hop on bike and off to coffee and breakfast with New Era crowd and friends downtown! Whoop whoop!