What if America had been discovered and colonized by someone else?

Yes, the land was taken from the Indians who had lived here for years. If it had not been by the original settlers, someone else would have done it eventually.

The Battle of Little Big Horn taught us a lesson about the underestimation of people thought to be primitive.

Yes, America enslaved a huge number of African slaves, treated them horribly. Despite that, we have the achievements of George Washington Carver, Booker T. Washington, Martin Luther King Jr. And don’t even get me started on Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, Jackie Robinson, and oh my God, Aretha Franklin, Duke Ellington, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles. The list goes on and on.

Yes, we created nuclear weapons, thank God we did it first, can you imagine what would have happened if Hitler had beat us to it, as he very nearly did.

Consider the mass production of automobiles, airplanes, televisions, etc.

And what about our movies, and our movie stars, Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Clark Gable, John Wayne, the list is far too long to continue.

We have treated some of our citizens badly, but at the same time, we have provided opportunities that allowed them to rise above bad treatment to teach the world what can be done.

I very strongly believe that one of America’s strongest contributions has been its hands off approach to religion. So many countries have massacred people who did not believe or failed to worship the state mandated religious practices.

We have much of which we should be ashamed, but we also have much of which we can and should be proud. As I write this, I can say with pride that I very much appreciate being an American citizen.